Getting Over It
by gracie5412
Summary: Hermione’s finally found the man of her dreams, but will he want a twentynine year old divorcee with two children? And will he be able to bury the fears brought from his old relationship in order to keep her? COMPLETE
1. Hermione\'s Life

**Getting Over It

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**

**Summery**: Hermione's finally found the man of her dreams, but will he want a twenty-nine year old divorcee with two children? And will he be able to bury the fears brought from his old relationship in order to keep her? **HG/OW. PG-13/T**.

**Disclaimer**: for whole story: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, events, objects, places etc.

**A/N – **Seeing as how my other story seems to be bombing right now I thought I would write something that I hope people will actually read and possible review.

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**_Chapter 1  
Hermione's Life_**

She picked up the book that had fallen to the floor and placed it on the coffee table then she walked over to the sofa and placed her hand upon his shoulder and shook him lightly.

"Piss off." He snapped and rolled over on the sofa so his back was to her.

Hermione was glad that he had kept his eyes closed, as she didn't want her husband to see the tears in her own. She stepped out of the living room and very slowly climbed up the stairs to her's and Mark's bedroom. She made two stops on the way down the hall to look in on her two children; Millie and Sam.

An hour after she had lay down in the cold double bed Mark came in and crawled up beside her, lying close but not close enough so he would actually touch her. But still, Hermione allowed herself the smallest of smiles, at least now she knew where he would be all night.

When she woke the next morning the bed was already empty, she looked across at the clock and saw that it was only six-thirty. With a loud, drawn-out groan she pushed the blanket off her body and swung herself into an upright position.

After she had dressed in loose jeans and a baggy, pale pink jumper she went down to the kitchen to start preparing breakfast for her two children before they actually got up. Millie and Sam were ten and six respectively and had yet to appreciate the fun of lie-ins. And sure enough at quarter past seven Sam came creeping quietly down the staircase, his thumb jammed firmly into his mouth, sucking loudly on it. He was only allowed to do this when his father wasn't home as the noise got on Mark's nerves.

"Mummy!" He squealed happily when he saw Hermione.

That was one of the good things; Hermione thought happily, her son was still young enough to see his mother as his idol. She bent down and collected him up in her arms to smother him in kisses until he dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"What type of eggs do you want for your breakfast sweetheart?" She asked as he climbed up to sit at the kitchen table.

"Scrambled!" He shouted happily, banging his hands on the shiny wooden surface. Hermione grinned and quickly obliged.

Twenty minutes later Millie joined them, asking for her eggs to be fried.

As her two children tucked happily, and very noisily, into their breakfast Hermione watched then with a smile. Bother had brown hair and green eyes like her but got their smooth pale complexion from their father, Mark Walker. She thought that they were the most beautiful children that she had ever had the luck to set her eyes upon. But then, she guessed, her opinion may be a little bit biased.

_They hardly look like their daddy at all, _she thought sadly, _he could leave now and pass by them in ten years and have absolutely no clue that they belong to him. _

This thought scared her the most, the prospect of Mark leaving her and the children.

She had met Mark in the summer that she had finished Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when they were both just seventeen years old. Mark hadn't been at Hogwarts, his father was a retired Headmaster of a private magical school, so Mark had been taught by him. They had spent the whole summer in each other's company, hardly ever parting at all, so it was inevitable that their relationship became physical.

It wasn't long before they were being introduced to each other's parents and friends. Harry and Ron told her that the relationship was moving way too fast but Hermione didn't care, she was in love.

In a few short months Hermione found out the shocking news that she was pregnant. She went to Mark, with a heavy heart, to tell him to news and wait for him to completely freak out or break up with her, but surprisingly he didn't do either. He did, in fact, visit a high priced jewellers any buy an engagement ring to make an honest woman out of her. Out of fear of being alone and delight of still being wanted Hermione happily accepted. Two months to the day after Hermione's eighteenth birthday Millie was born.

For the first few weeks everything was great, life was good, Mark helped out with the baby and they all got along fine. But then it changed, like good things always seemed to have the habit of doing. Mark got himself a job; he had to, to pay the mounting bills.

All the time that she had known him Hermione knew that Mark had wanted to travel, to see the world. He had been strongly opposed to the rules and being trapped in a job that he didn't want to do. He didn't like things to be repetitive, he liked to be free and have spontaneity in his life. Hermione had found this a thrill, all her life she had been a 'good girl', to keep to as many rules as she could, although with Harry and Ron she had broken many rules, but with Mark it felt new and exciting.

He changed when he began his new job, he was in an office, and it was all extremely competitive. He lost his wild, reckless side and began to let his serious side take over and rule his mind.

His messy hair was cut to short back and sides, outrageous clothes were pushed to the back of his wardrobe and exchanged for sensible robes in dull colours, even his sense of humour seemed to have changed from a loud, lairy one to a conserved, quiet one.

Hermione watched in horror as he changed and hated herself for the fact that she couldn't do anything to stop it.

Many times she thought wistfully about how they had met –

It was the very first week out of Hogwarts and Hermione was happily sat in Hogsmade Village with Harry, Ron and Ginny; who was moaning about having to go back to school in just six short weeks. Ginny had placed her hands over her eyes and threatened to start crying if Harry and Ron didn't stop teasing her so Hermione got up to but them all ice creams from the small shop on the other side of the square they were sat in, to raise Ginny's spirits.

As she walked to the door after buying the ice creams somebody pushed it with great force, causing Hermione to drop the four cones that she had been expertly carrying down her front.

The cold ice cream started to liquefy and run down the black blouse she was wearing and leave a white stain. She let out of small startled scream as the freezing cold ice seeped through the material to her skin. By this time the person who had knocked her had walked through the door and seen the havoc he had caused.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry Miss, please forgive me!" He exclaimed.

He quickly grabbed a pile of napkins from a nearby table and handed them to her so she could wipe the mess off of her top.

"I am so sorry." He said again.

"Don't worry about it, the stain will come out." Hermione reassured him as she threw the crumpled up paper towels into a nearby bin.

"Well at least let me buy you replacement ice creams," he offered, then chuckled to himself and added, "as cliché as that may sound and as corny as all this may be."

Hermione joined in his laughter as she walked back to the counter to buy more ice creams.

"Thank you very much, erm, sorry I didn't catch your name." Hermione said as they walked out of the shop into the village square where her friends were waiting for her.

"Oh, it's Mark, Mark Walker." He replied, "And you?"

"Hermione Granger."

They both stopped and Mark handed her the two ice cream cones that he had been carrying for her.

"Well those are my friends, I better take them these before they melt all over my hands or I drop them again." Hermione said, finding herself blushing.

"OK, well, again I say I'm sorry. I'm not usually that clumsy, in fact sometimes I've even been described as graceful." He joked.

"I'll take your word for it." Hermione laughed. "Well goodbye then."

With a smile Hermione turned and walked over to where Harry, Ron and Ginny were waiting for her.

"Where have you been? You've been gone for ages!" Harry said as she sat down.

"Who was he?" Ginny asked whilst eyeing up Mark.

"Where's my ice cream!" Ron demanded, thinking about his stomach, as usual.

Hermione quickly told them what had happened in the shop, and while Harry and Ron laughed at Mark's clumsiness, Ginny swooned at the romance of it all.

A few minutes later there was a small cough from behind her and someone tapped lightly on her shoulder. Hermione turned and came face-to-face with Mark.

"I'm sorry, but would you like to go out with me sometime?" He asked her nervously.

Trying to ignore the giggles coming from Ginny, Hermione broke into a broad grin and nodded happily.

"Great! I'll owl you sometime in the week." He grinned happily and walked away.

His spiky blond hair and eyes; brown with flecks of yellow, so in the sunlight they looked almost golden, stayed in her mind as she fell asleep that night so she was delighted when his owl arrived at her window the next afternoon.

--

The shouts of her children brought her back into the present, eleven years after she had met him; stood in the large house that his countless late nights in the office had brought them. They had finished their breakfast and now the kids wanted to be taken to the friends' houses that they had arranged to go to. Hermione quickly lit a fire so they could use the Floo network to quickly get them to the various destinations that they wanted to go to.

Stepping back into the living room Hermione looked around her, now empty, house and sighed sadly. She picked up the few things that the children had littered the floor with and tidied them away. She hated her time alone, it gave her time to think about things and she always managed to start thinking about upsetting things and, then, not be able to push them from her head again. She was a lot better when she was busy; she was a lot better when she didn't have time to realise that in actual fact she wasn't happy. When she didn't have time to remember all of the horrendous arguments that had taken place, all the times her marriage had almost come to an end –

"How long are you going away for this time?" Hermione asked, watching Mark pack clothes into a duffle bag without folding them.

"Just a week." He answered her as he searched the closet for his broomstick servicing kit.

"A week," Hermione exclaimed "But you will be back on Saturday night right? I'm meeting up with Harry and Ron that evening, remember?"

"Again? You see way too much of those two! You're always out with them." Mark moaned.

"They're my best friends and I only see them once a month!" Hermione snapped, "And that's the only time I only get to go out, all the other time I'm home looking after _our _children, unlike you who is always going to see Quidditch games and not coming home for a week."

"But that's different, this is for work, I'm almost certain that I'm going to get that promotion, if I don't go Jackson will weasel his way in and buddy up to the boss and jeopardise my chance. I can't let that happen, I'm doing this for all of us."

"Well these are my friends and they have been since I was eleven years old! Millie and Sam are your kids too; you can look after them for just _one _night."

"Oh yeah use the guilt card on me that's really mature!" Mark snorted. "I'm bloody glad that I'm going if you're going to be like this."

"Well if you don't like it then why don't you just not come back?" Hermione yelled, finding that she had reached then very end of her temper.

"Fine I damn won't!" He yelled back, finally finding his broomstick kit and yanking it from where it was lodged between a box of books belonging to Hermione and the cat basket that had belonged to Crookshanks.

Once he had stuffed that in his bag also, he stormed out of the front door, slamming it so hard behind him one of the glass panels fell out and shattered into tiny pieces on the wooden floor.

It was two weeks before he came home. The argument wasn't spoken about again, nor was where Mark had been or what he had done in the two week that he had been absent from the family home.

It seemed to be a constant thing; over the ten years that they had been together they had many raging arguments, usually because Mark was going away on some sort of trip for 'work', he would leave and come back a few weeks later as though nothing had ever happened.

It worried Hermione a little as everyone always said, 'the key to a good relationship is communication' but she tried to push those thoughts away with all the other doubts she had. As long as he comes home, I'm happy, she told herself; as long as he doesn't divorce me, I'm fine.


	2. Oliver's Life

**Getting Over It

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**

Hello reviewers! Some of you I know from my other stories and some are completely brand spanking new, which is always nice, anyhow thank you for reading-

FlamezBlaze1,  
RandomSmirf13,  
Morena-Forever,  
illyria-light,  
Get A Room,  
pyro the dark angel

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_**Chapter 2  
**__**Oliver's Life**_

Oliver Wood was sat on a very hard backed chair in a dimly horribly dimly lit restaurant. He was trying to keep his attention on the woman who was sitting opposite to him.

_Merlin, _he thought, _is she _still _talking? _

He didn't think he could even remember her name. He picked up his wine glass and pretended to be taking a drink while really he was hiding a huge yawn that he couldn't hold back. Why had he agreed to go out to dinner with her? She had bored him to tears in the nightclub he had met her at too. With a quick shake of his head his mind focused back onto the conversation.

_More like lecture, _he thought darkly, _I haven't said a thing all night. _

"So then when I was seven, Daddy let me have my very first real broomstick and he even let me choose it, I got a _Shooting Star, _it was all the rage back then, the top of the line." She was telling him.

_All I asked her was if she followed a Quidditch team! _He thought glumly as he tuned out of the conversation again.

_Mona! _He thought suddenly, _her name is Mona! I knew that I knew it! _

He sat up straighter feeling quite proud of himself that he had finally remembered the girl's name; it usually didn't come to him which led to an embarrassing pause at the end of the evening.

_Shut up! _His mind wailed _God woman do you not see that I'm about to die of boredom! Please just shut up for one minute. _

But on the surface he was nodding along to Mona's story, which was now about starting flying lessons, at the tender age of just eight years old. He tried extremely hard to listen to the tale but his brain refused and would go to sleep every time that he attempted to.

--

The next morning Oliver made excuses about having a huge pile of work to get through, to get Mona out of the flat very soon after breakfast.

_Luckily, _he thought, _we never got onto what I did for a living, it being June and me being a teacher would make it quite obvious that I'm on holiday. But then again she wasn't the brightest of girls maybe she wouldn't have realised. _

As he walked back into his bedroom he trod on something pointy that was sticking out from under his bed. He looked down to see the corner of a photo frame in view from where it had been stuffed with all the other junk under his mattress. He quickly bent down and picked it up, instantly regretting it from the head rush he got when he straightened back up. He had drunk a little bit too much the previous night and now he was getting older his head protested the morning after.

He looked at the photo that was sitting in the silver frame, for a moment it was empty, the person in it was obviously busy, but after a few seconds a woman walked into view. He gasped and his eyes froze on the image of the person who was sat on a pale yellow blanket in a grassy field making daisy chains. She had long black hair and blue eyes, so pale they matched the cloudless sky behind her. Her skin was tanned and she had freckles spotted across the bridge of her nose and spilling over to the apples of her cheeks. She was wearing a purple vest top, with a Celtic pattern embroidered onto it with dark blue thread, and shorts that used to be jeans but had been cut to fit in with the summery weather. This was Amy, the only girl Oliver had ever loved.

--

He had met her at his twenty ninth birthday party, he was having a pretty hard time, he was having quite a bit of bad luck, his house had burnt down when two children had been practising spells and one had hit the place he had lived in for the twelve years since he had been out of school. He was staying with his friends and team-mates from the Gryffindor Quidditch team Fred and George Weasley who were both fresh out of Hogwarts that year. They had thrown him the party and invited anyone who had walked into the shop that day. It had only been a few months after school had finished when the twins had opened their first WWW shop. That was the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and it had, of course, been a hit with the customers. They had spent the ten years they had been out of school to develop many new ideas and set up another shop in Hogsmade to go along with their first in Diagon Alley.

She had been casting spells on the food when Oliver first saw her, he walked over to see what she was doing and she happily explained that she was working out which of the food was charmed and which was safe to eat.

"I'm starving but I really don't feel like becoming a canary or whatever other things Fred and George decided to turn us poor victims into." She told him as she picked up a piece of pizza that she had deemed safe and sunk her teeth into it.

Her intelligence had dazzled him, as had her stunning looks of course and he had found himself waking up beside her the next morning. From then on for the next two years they were all over each other. They soon moved in together, well he moved into her place at least, and everything was going great.

--

He found himself falling in love. He had thought that Amy had felt the same way until the day that he had put his heart on the line just to get it stamped all over. It was the start of the Christmas holidays and Oliver had stopped on his way home from work to pick up the order he had placed the week before.

He couldn't help but smile as he placed the small, velvet lined ring box into his pocket as he walked out of the shop back to where he and Amy lived.

"Amy! Are you home yet honey?" He called as he walked through the door.

He bounded up the stairs and into the bedroom pulling the box out of his pocket and opening it up to reveal a stunning diamond rimmed with tiny rubies and emeralds on a gold ring with his and Amy's initials carved into the inside.

The scene he had seen when walking into the bedroom had been one that had ripped his heart to shreds. The love of his life was in bed, stark naked along with a young looking blond haired man.

"Oliver!" She screeched when she saw him in the doorway, pushing the guy off her and covering them both with the blankets.

"Amy?" Oliver had whispered, feeling as though someone had just kicked him in the stomach, very hard.

"Oh Merlin Oliver, I am so sorry, I never meant for you to find out this way!" Amy cried as she searched for her underwear on the floor, finding her on the door knob and her underwear on the dresser. The guy had already pulled on his jeans and t-shirt and was walking out the door.

Oliver couldn't talk the pain was too intense. He dropped the box to the floor and the ring came bouncing out and rolled under the wardrobe, lost in its shadows until it was fished out three days later.

"Why, Amy, why did you do it?" He whispered, blinking back the tears that were threatening to pour out of his eyes and roll down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry Oliver; I don't know I just don't know. I met him at work and it started off with just harmless flirting but it grew to so much more than that, I think I love him Oliver, I really do." She babbled with a sympathetic smile.

"But what about me?" Oliver asked sadly.

"Oh come on, we've been stuck in a rut for months, we both know we have. What we had was going no where, I think we should just make a clean brake." She shrugged and pulled her t-shirt back on from where she had found it, hanging off the ceiling light.

"We've been together for two years! Does that really mean nothing to you?" He cried.

"Listen Oliver I really wish you could just be happy that I've finally found my soul mate." Amy told him with a sigh and a slightly irritated look, as though he being upset was just something to get in the way.

"How can you just throw all this away?" He inquired as she got up and started walking out of the room that they had shared for so long.

Amy paused at the doorway and turned to face him again. "Listen the thing is, seeing as this is actually _my _flat I would really like you out before the end of the week. There's no point dragging it on, you can sleep on the sofa until you find a place to stay." She told him, "I already made a start on packing your bags so there's not that much for you to do."

--

He had moved in with Fred and George for a few weeks until he found a place of his own. Once in the small flat that he had found to rent he sat on the grubby sofa with the photo of Amy and broke down. He didn't go out, he hardly ate save for when Mrs Weasley visited him and watched and nagged until he had a full meal inside of him.

Slowly his depression turned into anger and he had ripped up every single picture containing Amy, enjoying hearing her screams and seeing her run to the edge of the paper so she wouldn't be torn in half. He then lit a small blue flame at the end of his wand and burnt them all. It had made him feel momentarily better.

After a few months he realised that he needed to prove him manhood after he had been made to look so inferior. He then became a serial dater; he would meet a girl, take her out once, sleep with her and then never see her again.

If he could just prove that all girls wanted him he would be able to get over that fact that Amy had cheated on him.

With anger he flung the photo frame against the opposite wall, the glass shattered and there were many cries of protest from the occupant of the frame, very angry to have been thrown.

He sat down on the bed and buried his head into his hands. This wasn't fair, every time he thought that he could get over Amy there would be something to remind him of her. He hated it, it was almost six months since she had thrown him out and he felt like he had made very little progress.

--

Later on that day there was a tapping at his window and an owl swooped into the room. It was small and very fluffy, defiantly an owl belonging to a girly-girl. He grabbed the letter from the owl and quickly read through it.

_My dear Oliver, _

_I want to thank you for a wonderful night, it was really great to get to know you, I feel like we've really go so much in common. And at our age there's really less of a chance of really feeling that way isn't there?_

_I was hoping that you would like to accompany to my cousin's wedding next weekend. Unless you're still bogged down with work of course! I really liked the meal we had, and the desert! I hope we could go out (or stay in!) again soon. _

_You can use my owl to send back your reply, I was thinking Friday night? Check your schedule and I can help you to 'relax' after a hard day of work. Let me know soon. _

_With all my love, _

_Your friend, _

_Mona xxx. _

Oliver blanched at the letter full of obvious innuendos, he hadn't realised that Mona had been quite that desperate. With a sigh he turned over the piece of parchment that she had written to him on and penned his response.

_Mona, _

_I'm sorry but I can't make it on Friday night and I don't think that I can make the wedding either. I have far too much work to do. _

_Oliver. _

He quickly gave the owl his blow-off and closed the window.

_Hopefully that will be enough for her to get the idea, _He thought, but not really believing himself, even as he thought it.

He decided that if he had used work as an excuse he could at least do the little that he had to do. He taught Charms in the primary Witchcraft and Wizardry school called Wand Sparks. It was a school for seven to ten year olds so Oliver only had eight classes to teach, to classes for each year. He had been in the school for a long time now and he really enjoyed seeing the children grow up through their school years and was happy to help prepare them for their further education where most would be going to Hogwarts.

Teaching was the only time that he completely forgot about Amy and all the other rubbish that he had been put through. He completely focused on the children he was teaching and was happy to do so; it was only when he got home and lay alone in bed that his thoughts turned back to the afternoon that he had walked in on Amy and the guy she had been with. It was only when he was alone that the doubts with himself crept back and he felt as inferior as he had done on the night that she had broken up with him.


	3. Party Time

**Getting Over It

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**

Thank you my reviewers-

Amanda,  
Morena-Forever,  
illyria-light,  
RandomSmirf13,  
queenofdiamonds1

**A/N – **Just to it up and answer the few people who asked; yes this is an Oliver/Hermione fic, sorry I guess I forgot to put it on the summary.

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_**Chapter 3  
**__**Party Time**_

Two pairs of small feet, thankfully shoeless, waked Hermione on a very sunny morning in July by jumping on her bed. It took her a moment to realise why, and then it hit her. Today was her twenty-ninth birthday. The feet were attached to her children Millie and Sam, who were getting quite heavy, she decided, and the person stood at the doorway holding the tray with her breakfast on it was Mark, on the rare chance that he wasn't working on the weekend. Birthdays and Christmas were the only times that Mark deemed it necessary to ask for time off. In fact, most of the time his boss would command that he took a holiday, as he had been working for too long and it wasn't good for his health. But that morning Hermione didn't care about that because he was there and it was going to be a good day.

Sam who then sat at her feet with a huge grin, waiting for her to unwrap it, dumped a heavy, scruffily wrapped, present in her lap. Hermione held it up and shook it, pretending to try to work out what was inside.

"I wonder what it could be?" She asked with an excited whisper that she knew made her children giggle, and sure enough they did as she began to peel off the paper.

It was a book titled, _Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions,_ it contained all the cures for things like colds, flu and other viruses, as well as how to brew dreamless sleep potions and the spell to repair skin.

"I thought it would be a good idea, what with the kids getting bigger and more boisterous and Sam will start learning Quidditch next year, now you'll know what to do if they hurt themselves." Mark explained with a smile on his face.

She got a bracelet off Millie, which Mark told her would change colour due to her mood. It was, in fact the same thing she had considered buying Millie, as it was only a couple of Galleons.

Off Mark himself he gave her an envelope. Hermione opened it to find that there were three tickets inside, three Portkey tickets to Australia.

"I rented you a villa for a week, thought it would be good for you and the kids to get away." He told her with a smile.

"You're not coming too?" Hermione asked when she realised that there were four people in the family and only three tickets in her hand.

"Well I'll be working won't I? It's the week of half term after they all go bac to school; Sam will be in his first year of primary school and Millie will be in Hogwarts. It will be a treat for them after their first term." Mark explained to her like she too was a child.

"Oh." Hermione said with slight disappointment, she had wanted him to be with her.

"We're going to The Burrow for dinner tonight, remember." Hermione said as he ushered the children out of the bedroom and he started to climb down the staircase, probably to do a little work from home.

"Yes I know; I endure it every single year." He sighed as he walked away.

This grated on Hermione a little, he still didn't like Harry and Ron or any of his brothers, but he liked Ginny, of course, she was female and he could flirt with her. But Harry and Ron he didn't trust.

"They're boys, they wouldn't be friends with you unless they wanted something out of it." He often told her.

_Very nice, _Hermione thought in response to this comment, _because no one could possible like me for my company of friendship, any male who buddies up to me must of course just want to get in my pants! _

The thought upset Hermione, not only did her husband not like her friends; he didn't trust her to be with them. Whenever she met up with them, as she did about once every month, he would continually question her about what they did for the week after. Hermione had to give him a blow by blow account of all she had done, what she had eaten, what they had spoken about, where they had gone. Once he had even gotten as bad as to ask her what they had all been wearing.

He was so possessive of her, he chose all her clothes and if she bought something herself he would have to see it and decide if it was suitable before she was allowed to actually wear it. Some things were too 'provocative' he would tell her, they gave men the wrong signals and he didn't want that. So her wardrobe now consisted of baggy trousers, (no skirts allowed!) and loose, figure hiding jumpers and t-shirts.

Whenever Ginny had visited of the two of them would go shopping she would scold Hermione for giving in so easily and not standing up for herself more. But Hermione, secretly liked it, it showed that Mark still wanted her to be his only, meaning that he must still love her.

--

After eating the breakfast that Mark had prepared for her, burnt toast, cereal with milk that had gone bad days ago and a freezing cold cup of tea, Hermione dressed in the only top that she could find without food, crayon of other things belonging to her children smeared down the front to go with the pair of jeans that she hadn't had time to wash the night before.

Even though it was her birthday Hermione still had to do all the house work and look after the children until the babysitter arrived later that day while Mark sat in the garden scribbling away on a piece of parchment claiming to be working, the only time that he came back into the house was to tell Hermione that he wanted his lunch brought outside to him. She bit back all the moans and the comments that she wanted to make, as she always did, and instead smiled and said.

"Of course dear, I'll bring it out to you when it's ready."

Which she did while making her children's lunches, helping Sam draw a broomstick, telling Millie to put down her wand and trying to find her other shoe, the one she was sure she had seen Sam with earlier. It was a further hour until she herself sat down to eat.

--

The babysitter that they had hired arrived at five o'clock that evening, giving Hermione an hour to shower, dress and do her hair and make-up before they were expected to arrive at The Burrow, where her birthday dinner was being held.

Hermione was on time as usual; she had kept hold of her ability to be punctual when she had left school, which is always useful when you have two children. Mark had already lit a fire and taken the pot of Floo powder down off the top shelf when Hermione joined him and they stepped into the fireplace together to go to their destination.

"Hermione! Happy Birthday!" Mrs Weasley shrieked as soon as Hermione stepped out of the fireplace and into the kitchen of The Burrow.

"Thank you Mrs Weasly." Come the muffled response from where Hermione's face was pressed into Mrs Weasley's shoulder as she was hugged.

"Call me Molly, dear. Now how are you two darling little angels?" Molly asked as they walked through the kitchen and into the garden where everybody else was.

Mark followed silently behind; Hermione's friends disliked him almost as much as he did them. It made to awkward situations when Hermione was around as she still thought the world of Mark and wanted the others to also.

A cheer came from everyone stood outside as she stepped out of the house and in to the Weasley's spacious garden. All of the Weasley family, along with Harry stood waiting for her and broke into a loud rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. Harry, Ron and Ginny all rushed over to give her a hug and the presents that they had brought for her.

After a few minutes of small talk they all took their seats at the large table set up, creaking under the weight of all the food that Mrs Weasley had prepared. It was the most delicious meal Hermione could remember eating since the feasts that were served in Hogwarts.

--

Once they had all stuffed themselves with enough food they retired to the living room for butter beers. Hermione sat down on the soft, squishy sofa between Harry and Ron so she could have a long discussion with them about what they had been doing since she had last seen them.

Harry was telling her about him spilt from his long-term girlfriend, Evelyn, who had left him for another girl. He was completely crushed, not only had he loved her, he now thought that he had driven her to turning gay.

"Am I that bad a boyfriend that girls would rather go with other girls than be with me?" He wailed to her.

"Of course not." Hermione soothed placing her hand upon his shoulder, "It's not your fault. These things happen, Harry you didn't turn her, she's probably known for a long time but was just in denial."

"Four years!" He said for the fifth time that night, "I wasted for years on that girl, I thought we were going to settle down and get married. I was suspicious when she said she was sleeping at a friend's house but when I found out it was a female's house I didn't worry. That proved me wrong!"

"Oh come here mate." She said and wrapped him up in a comforting hug. "You'll find someone and she'll fall for your good looks and great personality and she'll never look at another man _or woman _again. I promise."

"I' going to hold you to that, and when I'm still alone at fifty I'm going to be able to say 'I told you so'." He grumbled, "It's ok for woman, if there along they just get a cat and say they're tired of the dating game. If a guy did that they'd be called gay."

"Hey!" Ginny gave a cry of protest. "I got a cat and I'm dating thank you very much; so you can take your harsh generalisation back please."

Ginny was still dating Dean Thomas. They had started dating in Ginny's fourth year but had broken up when Dean had left Hogwarts. When they had bumped into each other a few years earlier they happily started up their relationship again.

Ron was they only other one out of the four friends who was married. Had he tied the knot three years after Hermione had done so with a woman, Rachel, he had met at his work at the Ministry in the Department of The International Confederation of Wizards (ICW). She was a Translator and helped him on a case with some vampires. They had fallen in love and married after a year of dating. Rachel was now heavily pregnant with their first child. She and Hermione had grown close in the seven years that she had been in their group of friends.

"Hermione can I talk to you for a moment please?" Mark asked as he came over to where she was sat. He took her arm and led her from the room and out into the garden.

"What wrong?" She asked, concerned, as he looked very odd.

"Could you be any more bloody obvious?" He snapped as soon as the door was shut.

"What? What are you talking about?" She asked him, confused.

"If you were any closer to Harry you'd be bloody sitting in his lap!" He yelled.

"Of course I would don't be stupid!"

"You've been all over him all evening." Mark accused.

"I have not, he's my best friend and he's just come out of a relationship that ended badly, I was comforting. It's what friends do." She replied hotly, feeling annoyed that he didn't trust her.

"Ron could have done it!"

"Yes and he probably already has enough as he can see him whenever he wanted as his spouse isn't completely irrationally jealous every time he steps foot outside the bleeding door!" Hermione yelled back.

Usually when Mark was like this she would remain calm, sooth him until he stopped shouting, mainly because they were at home when the arguments arose and she didn't want the children to hear their parents fighting. But the children weren't there and her tongue had been loosened from a few drinks so Hermione was more than happy to let rip.

"I'm being irrational now am I?" Mark asked making sound like it was the worst insult that she could have ever thrown at him.

"Yes you bloody are! Get it into your thick head; Harry is my _friend _nothing more. I don't want there to be anything more to it and there never will be, you'd see that if you could ever trust me enough to spend time with him and Ron."

"Of course you don't want it to be anything more than that you love me, but he's single and he wouldn't be friends with you unless he wanted you." He said, falling back on the same argument that he always used.

"Oh for Merlin's sake! How many times do I have to say this before it sinks in? Harry and Ron and I are just friends NOTHING MORE!" She screamed at him.

"Well it sure as hell didn't look like that the way you were panting all over him tonight!" He screamed back "It was embarrassing you looked like a complete whore!"

_Whack, _at these words Hermione's hand cam flying up and slapped her husband round the face.

"How dare you!" She growled, "All the time you flirt with other woman, right in front of my face and I never say a thing because I trust you enough to think that if you love me then you'd never do anything."

"Well maybe you're just being an idiot then!" Mark spat and Hermione couldn't bear to even begin to think of the implications.

"Well maybe you should bugger off then, you wouldn't want to stick with a idiot now would you? " She screamed.

"Fine, I'll find someone who isn't going to drool over every male she sees like a desperate little dog!" He snapped and with a loud cracking sound he disapperated, leaving Hermione stood alone.

She stood completely still for a few seconds, then turned and walked back inside. In the living room everyone turned red as she looked at them and stared at the floor, not wanting to meet her eye. It was quite obvious that they had heard every word.

"Thank you for a wonderful evening Mrs Weasley but I think I should get back to the kids now. Thank you for the presents everyone." She said quietly and began to walk out the room.

"Hermione?" Ginny called after her and Hermione stopped and turned round to see what she wanted. "If you need to talk anytime soon just owl me and I'll be there in a flash ok?"

Hermione nodded, not trusting herself enough to speak without bursting into tears.


	4. Over

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

Thank you to –

**Angryteabag** _– I know I went a little over board but I just wanted to make it completely clear that he was a shit-head, don't worry I'm not about to make Hermione weak and helpless but she wouldn't have done much when she was in front of all her friends. They'll be arguments later in the fic where she gives as good as she gets. Thanks for your options.  
_**FlamezBlaze1,  
****illyria-light,  
****yellowrosesinateacup**,  
**Morena-Forever,  
****RandomSmirf13**

**A/N** – So you've been saying that you think Hermione is too weak a character in this fic, but don't worry I will make her strong. At the moment she's very sad as her marriage is falling to pieces and she still thinks she loves him, it will get better and she will learn to stand up for herself. I know I went over board last chapter with Mark but I just needed to make sure you'd all sympathies with Hermione. It will get better for her after this I promise.

* * *

_**Chapter 4  
**__**Over**_

Hermione returned home to find the baby sitter stood in the middle of the living room with a look of pure panic about her face.

"Oh Mrs Walker! Thank goodness!" She exclaimed upon seeing Hermione enter the room. "I didn't know what to do he just came in and started throwing things around. He looked so angry and then he just left again without saying a word."

"Don't worry about it, here's your money, and half again for the fright you had, I'm sorry about that." Hermione said quickly handing it over and watching the girl disappear through the fireplace.

She then raced up the stairs, remembering to tread lightly along the landing so not to wake Sam or Millie, and threw open the door to her bedroom. The scene inside brought her to her knees. The whole room was ransacked; wardrobe and draws pulled open clothes flung about the place although it was obvious that half had gone. She looked about in horror before bursting into tears that she had held back for so long. Hermione cried for so long that by the time she stopped she didn't realise what it was she was actually crying about.

As morning dawned Hermione stumbled into the bathroom, still partially blinded by tears, on stood underneath the strong blast of the shower, trying to wash away the red puffiness from around her eyes. Looking into the bathroom mirror she opened a cabinet and unscrewed the cap to the painkillers.

"I'm not going to be able to do this one on my own." She muttered and swallowed a couple of pills.

--

Although she and Mark had fought before, this time was different. No matter what the situation had been Mark had always stayed quiet, silently brooding until they were alone to talk, or shout rather, things through. This was the first time he had been so angry to confront her in front of anyone, much less her close friends. Never in all their time together had Mark been comfortable discussing his private life with other people, he would much rather hide it all; this included any arguments.

Another thing that was different was the fact that he had actually packed a bag, he would usually leave with just his wand and whatever had been in his pockets. He's not coming back for quite a while, Hermione realised, this time he actually has a plan.

It was when she went downstairs that the final, hardest blow was served. It was something Hermione had not noticed before, in her panic the previous night. Sat on the jet-black coaster, upon the clear glass table, was Mark's wedding ring. A simple golden band, thick, shiny with _I love you _carved on into it. This was something that Mark had never done before, had never considered doing, or so she thought, she had never seen him take of his wedding band.

--

In reality Mark had taken off his ring every single morning as he walked through the door of the office complex where he worked. He had been doing so for the past two years. This had started when a woman got transferred into his department. From the moment he had seen her, even though she was four years his senior, he wanted her.

It had taken them a year of shameless flirting before they started a romance, in secret of course, as Mark had Hermione and she had her boyfriend. But a few months earlier she had ended things with her boyfriend and had given Mark an ultimatum: Hermione or Me. She wanted a real relationship or nothing at all. Mark had to make a decision.

--

At eight o' clock that morning Hermione ushered her two children into the fireplace, along with a hastily packed suitcase and took them to the only person she could think of: her mother

As she stepped into the house that she had grown up in the mum greeted her with a hug, Ginny had owled her the previous night so she was up to speed on what was going on.

"You take all the time you need and come and see Millie and Sam whenever you want." She told her daughter and took the case from her hand. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Hermione nodded sadly and watched as her mother took charge of the situation. The children were told to go and play in the guest bedroom and the kettle was put on.

"Now darling tell me what's on your mind." She said as she handed Hermione a steaming mug of sweet tea.

"Mark and I had a huge argument at the Weasley's on my birthday, he said that I had been flirting with Harry and that if I was going to carry on doing it that he'd find someone he could trust. When I got home he had packed a bag and left and his ring was on the coffee table." Hermione told her sadly as the tears flowed freely down her cheeks. "I know that we've always fought but it's never been like this, I'm scared mum."

Her mother pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "You need to be talking to him, he'll have calmed down by now, you go home and find him, the children can stay here for now while you get things sorted out."

"Thanks mum." Hermione whispered and went to say goodbye to Mille and Sam before apperating home.

--

The first thing she did when returning to the house was go to the liquor cabinet and pour herself a drink. Once she had downed it she went into Mark's study and pulled out a sheet of parchment and a quill. She quickly penned a letter to her husband.

_Mark, _

_I don't know where you are, whom you're with or when you expect to be home but we really need to talk things through. _

_I wasn't flirting with Harry and I'm sorry if that is what it looked like but I assure you that it's you and you alone that I love. Please come home to your family, the children are asking where you are; I took them to my mother's this morning so if you want to talk today would be the best time to do so. _

_Please let me know that you are, at least, safe. _

_With all my heart,  
__Your loving wife,  
__Hermione. _

She gave this to the family owl and told it to find Mark, she watched as it swooped through the sky until it was no longer visible. She was trying to be positive.

_He walks out a lot, but he always comes back, this time will be no different._ She insisted with herself as she settled down on the sofa to wait for her husband or the owl to come home, whichever would come first.

It ended up being Mark, a couple of hours later he apperated into the living room holding a large bag.

"Mark!" Hermione exclaimed and jumped up to hug him but he pushed her off.

"I'm not coming back Hermione, this time you went to far." He told her coldly and started climbing the stairs.

"What do you mean?" She asked, following him up.

"I mean that you draping yourself over Harry last night was shameful and I want a divorce." He said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why? I didn't cheat on you! I did nothing wrong!" Hermione cried.

"That's not the point." He sighed and opened the bag, which was empty, and began to place the clothes that he had left behind into it. "The point is that you were gagging for it and I don't want to think that if the chance arouse you would be unfaithful."

Hermione could tell that this was not the point; she had always known when Mark was holding back the truth.

"You're lying." She said, eyeing him suspiciously.

He sighed again and looked up at her as though the discussion was as average as what they were going to be eating for dinner that evening. "OK you're right. I've met someone and I'm leaving you for them."

"Y-you're cheating on me?" Hermione croaked, feeling the same bowled over feeling that she had felt that morning when she had discovered his ring on the table.

"Yes I am." He said simply, with no regret of sympathy for her.

"With who?" Hermione asked.

"That's hardly the point." He muttered and brushed aside the question.

"WITH WHO?" Hermione demanded.

"A woman at my office, she a few years older than us."

"Older? When you have a affair it's for a younger version of the one you have at home." Hermione said in wonder, as though this made it all even worse, and in her mind it did.

"Well she's different, more mature and I know I can trust her." He hissed, knowing it would hurt her feelings.

"Trust? How can you trust a woman who would sleep with another woman's husband?" Hermione shrieked.

"I knew you wouldn't understand." Mark tutted, "I'm sorry but there's nothing you can say to change things, I'm leaving you and I'll be contacting the lawyers in the morning. You can keep everything but you'll have to buy me out with the house."

"What? You know that I can't afford that! I haven't got a job!" Hermione wailed.

"Then we'll sell the house and spilt the profit, you can have all the furniture, it's not like I'll need it I'll be moving in with -"

"Yes you've said." Hermione interrupted feeling her whole world crash down around her shoulders.

"Well that's it then, I've got everything I need just about. I'll get the lawyers to contact you soon and I'll put the house on the market tomorrow morning."

"That's not fair you can't do this!" Hermione yelled.

"You'll find I can, if you don't go along with it I'll claim custody on the children, I'd be the better parent, I have a house, a partner to help care for them and steady income. You're jobless, on your own and are looking for a new house. Who are they going to favour?" He smirked at Hermione. "So if I hear any retaliation on your part I'm taking you to court. You'll find a new house you'll let the kids see me every other weekend and you'll shut your mouth about it. I'll pay you benefits and nothing more. Is that clear?"

"You bastard." Hermione whispered, knowing that she should not lash out, as much as she wanted to, as he had this to bribe her with.

--

As soon as he had gone Hermione went crazy, she picked up the pile of clothes he had thrown on the floor, the ones that he had not wanted and ripped them to shreds, she went round finding all pictures containing him and tore him out of them. She went round erasing all memories of him until she had no energy left. She then collapsed to the floor and sobbed.


	5. Get Away

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

Thanks to –

yellowrosesinateacup,  
illyria-light,  
Morena-Forever,  
RandomSmirf13,

* * *

_**Chapter 5**_  
_**Get Away**_

The first thing Hermione did was reach for the bottle, three drinks down the line she still felt awful. Curled up on the sofa with a blanket wrapped around her she let the tears dripped down onto her shirt, making patches of dampness all over it. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't even think. The only thing spinning through her mind was.

_This can't be it, he can't have left me, how can I cope alone?_

This was the most daunting thought for Hermione, having to live alone. She had never been alone, in all her years. She had gone from home, to Hogwarts, to sharing a house with Harry and Ron and then to moving in with Mark and getting married.

She had also never had a job; she hadn't needed one when she had been living with Harry and Ron, as it was Grimmauld Place, belonging to Harry already. There was no rent and she hardly ever had to pay for food. Then, when she had met Mark and fallen pregnant it had been him to get the job and earn a living. Although Hermione had the smarts she didn't have the experience that the job market was looking for. This was her main worry: being alone and not being able to support herself or her children.

It was a mercy, that evening when a flame shot up into the fireplace and Ginny stepped into the living room. As soon as she saw Hermione she knew instantly what had happened, she rushed over and wordlessly pulled her into her arms.

"Oh Hermione!" She sighed, not knowing what to say to offer sympathy.

"H-he's w-wa-was ch-cheating on m-m-me!" Hermione shocked out through the sobs.

"That bloody bastard!" Ginny hissed, "How the hell can he do that to you?"

"A-an-and h-he sa-says th-th-that we have to se-sell the hou-house, I ca-can't aff-afford to b-buy him ou-out!" Hermione wailed.

It was half an hour before Hermione calmed down enough to string together a full sentence and explain what had happened.

"He says that we have to sell the house or I have to buy his half of it." Hermione said sadly.

"Why can't you take him to court? He's walking out on you so you should get to keep it." Ginny said with fury.

"I said that to him, but he says if I cause a fuss of delay the divorce that he'll claim custody on the children."

"He can't do that!" Ginny yelled.

"Yes he can, he can take them, he's got a house and a job and money and everything, I'm just a useless ugly woman who couldn't even keep her husband. She's older than me you know, by four years! He left me for a woman four years older than me!"

"You are not useless Hermione, you have raised two wonderful children, you are a great mother, and were a wonderful wife. The amount you had to put up with I'm surprised you didn't kill the bloke. I know you didn't want to see it before but you have to now, look back and think about the way he used to treat you, it was awful wasn't it? He used to fly off the handle all the time and you used to do whatever he said." Ginny told her trying to be sympathetic, "You are so different when you're around him; he treated you more like a maid than a wife most of the time."

At these words Hermione started to think about all the times she and Mark had been together, and realised with a great gust of shock that Ginny was right. She had happily settled into the role of housewife and had become the mother figure, the one that cooked, cleaned, washed and looked after everyone. Mark had happily taken advantage of this fact and had let her do everything.

She then thought about the times when she wasn't with Mark; when she saw Harry and Ron, or visited Rachel, or gone shopping with Ginny, she was happy, loud and able to relax.

"But I still love him." Hermione croaked.

"Then you're crazy." Ginny said, unable to keep it to herself.

A small part of Hermione's mind agreed with her friend.

--

The next afternoon Hermione travelled back to her parents' house and picked up her children. She wanted to have someone else in the house, the fact that the house was empty emphasised the fact that Mark had left her and the fact that she was now alone.

Once the children were back Hermione had to get on with things, she couldn't brake down in front Millie and Sam, when her children were around she had to be strong. Being strong all day helped her; she learnt to get on with things and block out all the pain.

--

A month passed and a 'For Sale' sign appeared in the front garden of the house. Hermione wasn't allowed to show people around the house; Mark didn't think that she could be trusted to do it without trying to put people off in able to buy herself more time in the house that she wanted to stay in. Whenever there was a viewing Mark would turn up and show them round, focusing on all the good points.

Divorce papers turned up, delivered by a large black, scary looking owl. Hermione sadly signed them and sent them back, knowing that if she took too long on returning them he would begin proceedings about custody of the children.

The papers said that Hermione was able to keep all the furniture and have shared custody of the children.

--

Another week passed and Hermione started spiralling into a pit of despair, she still had no house to move into and had no job to earn money, she was living off benefits at that time, but that scarcely cover the shopping bill and clothes that Millie and Sam needed.

One evening Ginny came baring good news.

"I've been thinking," she said as she stepped out of the fireplace, "remember your birthday present? Well I think that you should still use it?"

"What that book? How can I use that? It's not like it has a cure for going through divorce."

"No stupid!" Ginny groaned at Hermione's slowness, "I mean the holiday! You should still go on it! In fact why don't I get a ticket and come with you? I'm sure that there'll be enough room in the villa."

Hermione thought about it for a while before smiling, "Yeh why not! It's already all paid for, it shouldn't go to waste."

"And better still Mark paid for it all!" Ginny said and the two began laughing.

"Ok great, I'll get you the number and see if you can get on the same portkey as us." Hermione said and went to find the tickets and information.

--

A couple of months passed and Millie and Sam started school. They both loved their new surroundings and Hermione started to get used to being in the house on her own. Finally half term came, bags were packed and the four of them got ready to go to Australia. Their portkey was at seven in the evening of the first Saturday of the holidays. The first thing that struck them was the heat as their knees buckled as they landed.

"Oh wow!" Ginny exclaimed as stood up and looked around her, putting on her sunglasses.

Sam squealed with delight looking at the villa they would be staying at. It was large and had palm trees in the front garden. They rushed inside and looked about themselves.

"Wow! Look at the bedrooms!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Look at the pool!" Ginny laughed running into the back garden to look around.

They spent the whole afternoon running around and grinning with happiness at the place they were staying. The villa was part of a whole complex so that evening Millie and Sam went down to the club to see the magical firework display. Hermione and Ginny stayed in the villa and cracked open a bottle of wine.

"See aren't you glad that you came?" Ginny asked as she stretched out on one of the sofas.

"Very." Hermione nodded, "This is the first night I haven't felt like crying."

--

The next morning Millie and Sam were eager to get out of the villa and down to the club to meet the children they had befriended the previous night; Beth and Nick.

It was mid afternoon before they returned.

"Mum! Beth and Nick are going to play a game of miniature golf can we go with them?" Millie called as they ran inside.

"You've been with them all day! I'm sure their mother won't want to have to look after you two as well." Hermione told them and they both pulled a face.

"She said we could go!" Millie whined.

"Well how about I come down with you and check that it's ok with her, just to be sure." Hermione said and the three of them set off together leaving Ginny to work on her tan.

They arrived at another villa and Sam happily knocked on the door. A woman opened the door; she was short with blonde hair and large bags under her eyes.

_She would be pretty,_ Hermione thought, _if she didn't look constantly worn out. _

"Hi I'm Hermione Walker, I mean Granger sorry; I'm Millie and Sam's mother."

"Hi there I'm Alison. You're divorced too?" She asked with a half smile.

"Yes, did you know?" Hermione asked.

"I changed my name back when I got divorced too; it took me ages to get used to my maiden name again." She told her and Hermione relaxed a little, she found someone to empathise with her.

"So, I came to check that it was ok that the kids go miniature golfing with you?" Hermione asked

"Oh yes of course! It will give Nick and Beth someone to talk to and it means I don't have to play." Alison laughed.

"Ok well let me cook you and your family dinner tonight as a thank you." Hermione said with a smile.

"That would be lovely, oh but my brother is with me too, I hope you don't mind?"

"No of course not, that'll be great."

Hermione stopped off on the way back to the villa at the small shop to get food to cook for that evening. As she walked out of the door the person in front of her's bag handle broke and the contents tipped out all over the floor.

"Oh bugger!" He exclaimed and bent down to start picking it all up.

Hermione stooped down to help him.

"Thank you." He said as she placed the food into the other bags her was carrying.

Only when he spoke did Hermione recognise him. "Oliver? Oliver Wood?"

"Yeah that's me, how did you know that?" He asked, frowning slightly.

"I'm Hermione Wa-Granger. I was a friend of Harry's at Hogwarts." She explained and recognition finally spread across his face.

"Oh yes of course! Hi, how are you? How life been treating you?" He asked her with a smile.

"Not too well actually, I'm in the middle of a divorce at the moment, I'm here with Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, and my two children."

"Oh I'm sorry that your marriage didn't work out." He said and Hermione felt like he was really being sincere.

"Thank you," She smiled warmly, "So what about you?"

"Pretty much the same, I've just come out of a long relationship, came here to get away with my family."

They stood and caught up for a few more minutes before Hermione excused herself, telling Oliver that she needed to begin preparing the meal she was cooking for that evening.

--

"Guess who I just bumped in to!" Hermione declared as she joined Ginny out in the sunshine of the garden.

"Who?" Ginny asked, yawning and starching herself out.

"Oliver Wood." Hermione told her.

"From school? What's he doing here?"

"Holiday duh!" Hermione laughed and whacked her with a magazine that was lying about.

"You know what I meant! So that's what took you so long, you and him were getting chummy?" She teased.

"No I was at the shop; I invited Alison and her brother and kids for dinner tonight I needed to get some food." Hermione told her while rubbing sun tan lotion into her skin, she had put the food on to cook it would be an hour until she needed to check it, until then she could work on her tan.

--

At five thirty that evening Millie and Sam happily bounded through the door followed by two other children Hermione took to be Beth and Nick. Alison stood on the doorstep with another figure stood behind her.

"Come on in!" Hermione called as she pointed her wand at the saucepan making the wooden spoon sat in it stir the contents.

"Hermione this is my brother, Oliver." Alison said as they joined her in the kitchen and for the second time that day Hermione found that she was face to face with Oliver Wood.

--

Everyone had a lot of fun that evening, it was spent telling countless embarrassing tales of Oliver's youth by Alison and Hermione and Ginny reminding him of how Quidditch obsessed he had been.

Sam had been in awe of him, he was one of his teachers at his school. And to see a teacher out of school, let alone be allowed to call them by their first name, was a rare treat for a seven year old.

For the rest of the week the two families spent the days together, sharing looking after the children and cooking meals. They all got on very well and on the last night exchanged addresses so they could keep in touch by owl.

--

It was nine o' clock when the portkey left to take them back home, dropping Ginny off first then transporting Hermione, Millie and Sam to their home. Still in high spirits the three walked up to their house and Hermione got out her key. She tried and tried again but it would not fit into the hole.

After a few minutes a man opened the door looking very angered.

"Can I help you?" He snapped.

"This is my house!" Hermione exclaimed.

"No it isn't we signed the deeds to it at the start of the week, we moved in three days ago." He told her.

"What? No I live here; Mark said that he'd wait until I found a house!" Hermione wailed, forlorn realising what her ex-husband had done.

"Wait you're the wife right? He left you something. Hold on." The man told her, shutting the door. A few minutes later he opened it again and handed her a piece of parchment. "Now please leave my property." He shut the door again and this time Hermione heard a click as the door was locked.

_Hermione, _

_I got tired of waiting for you to get your arse into gear so I took action. All the furniture is in storage in your vault in Gringotts I took my money out of it and have my own now, the key belongs to you. Please find a new place to live. _

_I cannot have the children on my next weekend as I am throwing a party so I shall see them in a month. _

_The solicitors say that proceedings are nearly complete and the final papers should be here soon. _

_Mark Walker. _


	6. Another Time To Party

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

Thanks to –

Get A Room (for chpt. 4)  
angryteabag,  
queenofdiamonds1,  
illyria-light,  
baby.rap,  
LaLa-the-Panda,  
Morena-Forever,  
yellowrosesinateacup,  
RandomSmirf13

**Disclaimer: **Stan Shunpike's first speech in this chapter is taken from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban page: 31, chapter 3 The Knight Bus. I do not own it.

* * *

_**Chapter 6**_  
_**Another Time to Party**_

Hermione, Millie and Sam stood out on their driveway in the semi-darkness shocked looks on all of their faces.

_We're homeless, _Hermione finally registered as it began to grow colder and darker, _and what the hell are we going to do now? _

They were stranded; the children were with her so she couldn't apperate to get help, she had no owl or any other means to contact her friends or family, she couldn't even get to a fireplace as the only neighbour she had lived three miles away and they had never actually met.

She took the two suitcases they had in her hands and told her children to follower he closely. They made their way slowly down the deserted road Hermione trying to think of a way to get them out of the mess when there was a loud banging sound and a huge purple bus screeched to a halt next to them.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be you conductor this evening." The man said; he looked just a few years older than Hermione.

He leapt down and picked up the suitcases and helped Millie and Sam onto the bus. They ran down the aisle and threw themselves onto a bed each. Hermione joined them a few seconds later after telling Stan where it was they wanted to go.

As soon as she sat down the bus lurched into motion speed faster than Hermione thought was possible, weaving in and out of the traffic. Soon it pulled to a grinding stop causing many of the beds to slide forward and the chandelier to sway violently.

In his cheery voice Stan announced the place where Hermione and her children would be getting off. Home to one of the people that Hermione turned to in times of crisis.

"Grimmauld Place!"

--

After much knocking and ringing of the bell Harry finally opened the door to the three, now freezing figures.

"Hermione! What are you doing here? I thought you were on holiday." Harry exclaimed when he opened the door.

"Oh Harry I'm so sorry to disturb you but I need help! He kicked us out! He sold the house when we were on holiday, we're homeless Harry." She wailed as he ushered her inside.

"That's awful! Are you ok? You must be terribly jet lagged, come in, you can stay her for as long as you need, don't you worry, it's not like I don't have the space right?"

"Thanks Harry." Hermione sniffed.

--

The next Monday Harry accompanied Hermione first to the primary school to drop off Sam and then to Kings Cross to make sure that Millie caught the Hogwarts Express from platform nine and three quarters.

The two friends then returned to Harry's house and he called in sick to work. Hermione had things to do and Harry said that she wasn't allowed to do any of it without his help; she was still broken and fragile.

The first thing that she had to do was confront Mark, the one thing that she was scared of doing. He pushed her into the fireplace and took her to the address that Mark had given her the previous evening when she had owled him, asking to meet with her.

He was alone when they arrived, which Hermione was thankful for, she didn't think she'd be able to cope if his girlfriend had been there.

"Hermione, Harry." Mark greeted them stiffly and the two of them stayed silent. He motioned that they should sit down but they stayed standing, finally with a great sigh he stood up instead.

"You fucking lying bastard!" Hermione screeched as she flung herself across the room and began hitting him.

Harry pulled her off, although didn't hasten to do so.

"Hermione if you came here to make a spectacle of yourself than your wasting my time. I have work I should be doing." Mark snapped impatiently.

"You always have work you should be doing." Hermione retaliated, still being held back by Harry. "You made me homeless, you heartless sod, you kick me and our children out onto the street with nothing."

"Now that's not true!" He argued, "I gave you your furniture just like I said I would, it's all in your bank account along with half of the money for the house."

"Like that's enough! You said you would wait until I found a house to live in!"

"Well you weren't looking so I took action, maybe now you'll learn to be more punctual." He told her, sounding as though he thought he was doing her a favour. "Now unless all you wanted to do was hurl insults at me will you tell me why you're here so you can leave."

"Actually all I came here to say was that I think you're scum." Hermione snapped.

"You better watch that mouth woman, at this rate the kids will be mine before our divorce comes through, not that I actually want them of course!"

This time Harry had to physically place himself between Hermione and Mark to stop her from storming over and battering him within an inch of his life. It took him many soothing words to convince her to disapperate with him.

--

"I am going to KILL that man!" Hermione fumed as soon as they appeared in the Entrance Hall of Grimmauld Place.

"Just calm down a little bit Hermione. You can't go to a careers advisor looking like a homicidal maniac, there aren't many jobs for them these days."

"I know, I know just give me a few minutes to calm down, then we'll go to Gringotts and get the stuff we'll need. Then I'll go to my careers interview." Hermione said decisively and a few minutes later the Floo'd to the Diagon Alley.

--

At four o'clock Hermione had done all the tasks she needed to do that day and went to collect her son from school. Oliver was at the gates.

"Hello Hermione." He said as she walked into the playground and looked around for Sam.

"Hi Oliver how are you?" She asked politely, beckoning Sam over.

"I'm great thanks, you?" He beamed.

"A little tired, I went to see my ex-husband today, to tell him what a jerk I think he is, he kicked us out of the house while we were on holiday. Then I went to Gringotts, that's where he had stored all of my things, I wanted to check that he'd actually left everything. And I've just come back from a careers interview; they want to see what type of job I'd match."

"Sounds hectic, so where are you staying now?" Oliver asked, concerned.

"With Harry, he's been great today, really helped me out." Hermione smiled.

"Always the hero right?" He joked but kindly.

Sam finally broke away from his group of friends and walked over to his mum wordlessly handing her his school bag. It contained many books but no wand; children weren't allowed their own wands in primary school, much to the disappointment of Sam.

He grabbed Hermione's hand and started to pull her away.

"Oh!" Oliver shouted after her, "the twins are throwing my a birthday party next weekend at their place, my sister will be there and most of the Weasleys, you should come along, it'll be fun. Bring Harry too!"

"Sounds good, I'll see if I can make it." Hermione smiled and allowed her son to pull her away.

--

The weekend of the party rolled around and Hermione dropped her children off at Mark's house, he had agreed to look after them for that weekend, as long as she didn't pick them up too late the next day.

At eight Hermione and Harry apperated to Fred and George's flat where the party was underway. Wet-start fireworks were flying around the ceiling and music played from nowhere. There were feathers covering the floor where people had shed them after turning into canaries.

Hermione soon found Ron and Rachel sat in the corner, Rachel not being able to drink and Ron not letting her dance to the fast music as he said she was too far into her pregnancy and didn't want to hurt the baby. _Mark never did that for me, in fact he used to offer me drinks all the time, _Hermione thought bitterly as she joined them.

She caught up with them for a while before making her excuses and throwing herself into the mass of dancing people. She soon found Alison in the middle of the crowd being danced to death by Fred, who had no better from when Hermione had seen him dance in school at the Yule Ball. When she saw Hermione she broke away and sat down looking relived to have escaped.

They were still sat down near the drinks table when Oliver came over to see them.

"Ally, stop being so boring! Poor Hermione, you must be bored stiff listening to my little sister drone on." He laughed as Alison hit him on the arm.

"She's no boring my Oliver." Hermione said quickly.

"Yeah Ollie, I'm not boring at all!" Alison laughed and stuck out her tongue in a childish manner.

"Well you look bored so I'm here to save you, come and dance with me!" He declared loudly grabbing Hermione's hand and hauling her onto the dance floor before she had a chance to protest and sit down again.

They danced three fast, cheerful songs before the music began to slow down and couples got closer. Awkwardly Oliver put his arms around her waist and Hermione placed hers on his broad shoulders. They swayed slowly and silently, not really knowing what to say.

"Happy Birthday, by the way." Hermione said finally breaking the silence. "How old are you now?"

"Thirty-three, getting old now. My mother's not happy; almost forty and still no grandchild for her, that's all she said to me today." He chuckled.

"Well don't rush to have one; as soon as you do they just nag about the way you bring them up. You really can't win." She laughed.

"I'd much rather have the ready made package. I love kids but I'm better when they're a little older, I was rubbish with Ally's kids until they were about six or seven. If I could meet a woman fall in love and already have kids around that age then life would be complete." He told her, slurring his words slightly as all the drink began to kick in.

"You're about the only man who thinks that, most think it's far too much commitment to be with a woman who already has children." Hermione sighed.

"Well then there just stupid, it's much easier; no broken nights, no potty training, nothing like that." He said nodding decisively.

"You may be drunk but you're very wise." Hermione told him, trying not to laugh at his expression. As the evening progressed Oliver drunk more and more as the danced until he finally slumped against Hermione, not being able to stand up on his own any more.

By this time a large proportion of the crowd had left and many others were leaving so they couldn't get talked into helping clean up. Hermione however was helping to look after Oliver, who was now lay across her on the sofa, stopping her from actually being able to move.

"Hermy!" Fred exclaimed as he jumped over the back of the sofa to sit next to her, seconds later George appeared on her other side, narrowly missing sitting on Oliver's head. "How are you my dear?"

"I'm ok thanks Fred although Oliver does seen to be crush-" Hermione answered by George gave her on time to finish the reply.

"Excellent, excellent, now don't you worry if you want that Mark the Bastard beating up you tell us!" He said you an exaggerated nodded.

"Yeah, and we can find people bigger than him to do it straight away for you!" Fred added joining in the nodding.

Hermione chuckled a little and shook her head. "Thanks guys, but I'm fine I don't want anyone beating up anyone at the moment."

"Oh ok we understand completely!" George said nodding and winking theatrically, obviously not believing the answer that she had given them.

Hermione was about to answer when Oliver grunted, rolled over and fell off the sofa landing smack down on the floor, face first. This jolted him awake and he sat up looking dazed.

"Here, have a coffee, looks like you need it." A woman said as she walking into the living room from the kitchen.

She was tall with long black wavy hair, she had a stunning figure and by the way she walked, swaying her hips and pushing out her chest, she obviously knew it. All the men in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at her; she was just one of those beautiful people.

"Thanks." Oliver finally said as he gawped at her.

"Oh, dear you look positively washed out! You must be exhausted, you poor girl, why don't you get off home and I can look after Oliver from now." She said in a obviously spiteful manner, making sure she emphasised how bad Hermione looked.

With shock Hermione rose from her seat and said goodbye to her friends before leaving.

_Why was she so mean? What have I done to her? _She asked herself as she returned to her house to sleep off the slightly drunken state she was in, hoping that she wouldn't have a hangover the next morning when she needed to pick up the children.

--

Back in Fred and George's flat the woman was fussing over Oliver and leaving all the cleaning to the twin and the other few people that were left and not asleep. She however was far too interested in getting to know the man she was caring for.

"I'm Natalie." She cooed as she stroked his head as her rested it in her lap. "So birthday boy, I didn't bring you a present, naughty me, how about I make it up to you? But whatever could I do for you now?"

She raised her eyebrow suggestively, gave him a cheeky smile and took his hands. Together they apperated to her bedroom and collapsed down onto the bed, hands exploring each other, lips finally finding each other and interlocking. Clothes were discarded and thrown to the floor and their bodies pressed together.

The next morning Oliver woke up with his arms still around Natalie. She looked up and smiled, kissing him on the lips softly.

"So where do we go from here?" She whispered.

"What do you mean?" He asked, feeling his hammering headache kick in.

"I mean do you want to hook up? Go out or just, you know, say goodbye and leave it as this." She explained with a coy smile moving up to kiss him again.

He smiled as her hand snaked up his leg very slowly. "Oh I think I want to see a lot more of you." He nodded and pulled her onto him, both of them beginning to giggle.


	7. Double Dating

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

Thanks to –

**queenofdiamonds1,  
****Lunas twin,  
****illyria-light,  
****Morena-Forever,**  
**RandomSmirf13,  
Get A Room**

* * *

**_Chapter 7  
Double Dating_**

A week after the party Oliver woke to find the slender arms of Natalie still draped round him as she slept. He couldn't help but smile and lean down to kiss her awake. Once she did they both sat up to share a proper kiss before getting dressed.

"So what are we doing today?" She asked as she pulled on her jeans.

Usually, as early on in a relationship would blanch at the use of the word 'we' but this time he did not, he was too busy thinking up an excuse.

"I'm going to the Burrow this afternoon." He said, trying to ignore the expectant expression on her face.

"Oh." She said disappointedly after a few seconds of her waiting for him to extend the invitation to her also. "Well I guess I should go then. I'll owl you later."

She gave him a huge kiss on the lips and disapperated, leaving Oliver sighing. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted her to come, quite the opposite, this was the first person since Amy that he had see himself in a relationship with for a long amount of time. It was Fred and George; they had invited him and told him that they didn't want the 'bird' coming along too. It was to be a day of watching Quidditch and drinking beers, strictly non-female. Then on to the Burrow in the evening where Molly would have, no doubt cooked up a wonderful meal for them to stuff themselves with.

--

Hermione was spending the day with Ginny at the magical health spa that had just been opened up in Hogsmade Village. Hermione had not wanted to go but Ginny had insisted.

"It's time to stop sitting at Harry's and feeling sorry for yourself. The bastard left you, but he did you a favour." Ginny informed her, "You can get over it if you still feel the same, get a new look; nice and professional and they'll be dying for you to work for them you'll see."

At first Hermione had not wanted to go, the wave of anger had passed and the depression had began to kick in. All her friends were a great help and especially Oliver's sister Alison as she had experienced going through a divorce, so knew exactly what Hermione was feeling.

"Come on 'Mione," Ginny coaxed, "You've been really strong up until now, you know you don't need him."

Finally Hermione gave in and got out of bed and dressed to go with Ginny to the spa, and, once she was there, she was very glad that she had done so.

"Thank you Gin." She grinned as she looked at her friend through the reflection on the mirror as her long brown hair was being cut into a new style.

"I'm just happy to see you smiling again, I haven't seen you smile like that in years you know." Ginny replied honestly, "anyway clothes shopping next! I do believe you still have one of The Bastard's credit cards left. I think you should use it before he thinks he's lost it and cancels it!"

"He won't." Hermione giggled, "He too proud to admit that he could loose anything he'll just say he misplaced it and won't mention it for months. That's why it's still working now."

So that's what they did, and once their arms were weighed down by so many bags they found it hard not to slouch when walking they headed back to The Burrow where they had both been invited for dinner.

--

They were the first there so, while Ginny went to set up the tables in the back garden Hermione helped Molly in the kitchen. The whole Weasley family had excepted that Ginny would never make a good housewife as her complete lack of ability to make even the simplest of meals, but Hermione on the other hand was quite the little chef, so Mrs Weasley adored the chance to teach her new tricks.

"So my darling, how _are _you?" Molly asked as soon as they were alone, her voice brimming with sympathy.

"I'm getting better, it helps that I have the children to keep me company and Harry is a star looking after them when I go for job interviews. It's easier now Millie's at Hogwarts and Sam is staying at a friends tonight so I won't need to worry about him until tomorrow lunchtime. It still hurts but I can feel it getting less so that's good right?" Hermione replied while beginning to peel the potatoes for the mash.

"Well from what Ginny tells me you've been doing great! I know some women who fall to pieces for years after they split up with their husbands." She said laying a hand on Hermione's arm.

A warm feeling flared up inside of Hermione, the remembrance that even though Mark left her she was loved by so many people, this feeling she clung onto like it was the only thing keeping her afloat in the vast sea of emotions that she was drowning in.

--

A while later Ron, Rachel and their new baby girl Lizzy arrived and joined Ginny and Mr Weasley outside. Molly left Hermione alone in the kitchen so she could coo over her new grandchild and hint to Ginny that it was time she should be settling down and having a baby too. As usual Ginny took no notice.

As the food reached a point where it was nearly done Fred, George and Oliver arrived.

"Why didn't you get here sooner?" Molly scolded as she saw her two sons.

"If we got here on time you would have made us help out." Fred said with a shrug, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and pulled a chocolate frog from his pocket.

"You'll ruin your appetite!" Mrs Weasley sighed, but like all her other children he was used to her nags and it bounced off him like the comment had never even been said.

When all that was to be done was to serve up the food Molly sent Hermione outside to make sure everyone was sitting down. She ended up sitting next to Oliver, who couldn't help but tell her all about his amazing girlfriend Natalie. Unfortunately for Hermione, her brain now knowing he was taken began to find him extremely attractive. All night she tried to ignore just how green his eyes were and how tiny little dimples appeared at the sides of his mouth when he smiled or laughed.

"So Natalie's got kids then?" Hermione asked, remembering the conversation they had had at Oliver's birthday party.

"What?" Oliver frowned, trying to work out why she would ask that and Hermione noticed the dimples return.

"At your party you said you wanted to be with someone who already has kids, remember when you were lay over me on the sofa, but you were probably too drunk by then." She said with a laugh as Oliver turned bright red.

"Oh Hermione I'm sorry you must have thought I was coming on to you! I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." He stammered slightly.

Hermione laughed again. "Don't worry Oliver I thought it was very nice to get a male's point of view where they didn't say they'd run a mile from a woman who already has kids and hasn't got a job."

"Surely men are tripping over each other to go out with you?" He asked and it took Hermione a few seconds to realise that he wasn't joking.

" 'Fraid not." She sighed with a resigned smile.

"Well I know just the guy! A good friend of mine, called John; I play Quidditch with him. You should come out for a meal with me and Natalie and meet him, you two could hit it off." He said excitedly.

When she was younger some friends had set her up on blind dates before and they had always ended terribly but Hermione found herself agreeing and arranging a day when the double date could go ahead.

--

Friday night rolled up and Hermione got ready to go on her date with John, although she had never met him and knew it was highly unlikely that things would ever turn into a real relationship she found that she was nervous. This was, after all, the first date she had been on in over ten years. If she was totally honest with herself she didn't have a clue what she was doing.

It was a dinner date so she had chosen to wear a calf-length red dress that she thought looked formal but sexy. Finally Seven o'clock chimed and Hermione apperated to Oliver's flat, where they had all agreed to meet. John was already there when she arrived. He seemed quite nice, tall and broad, a beater's build, he wasn't too bad looking, Hermione concluded, but nothing too special just nicely average.

When she appeared in the living room he quickly jumped to his feet and shook her hand while Oliver introduced them. Natalie gave her a very false smile and they all set off to the restaurant that was just down the road.

Once they were seated at a table for four Natalie threw her arms around Oliver and began to kiss him like there was no tomorrow, leaving Hermione and John to make conversation between themselves. This resulted in a great deal of awkward pauses and John explaining just how a Wizarding accountant was different to a Muggle accountant. It was obvious that he was extremely smitten with her, which of course did wonders for her ego and made her realise that men may actually be able to find her attractive again, but unfortunately for Hermione he was probably the most boring person she had ever met.

The only time Oliver and Natalie came up for air was when they were eating but even then, whenever Oliver would try to start a group conversation, Natalie would start to nibble on his earlobe and whisper to him, making him forget all about his two friends that were sat with him.

At the end of the evening the check came and they the two men insisted on paying for their dates before they all walked back to Oliver's.

"So Hermione, I don't know how you feel, but I had a great time tonight, how about we go out again?" John asked as they sat down in the living room where Oliver and Natalie were listening to the conversation.

Hermione flushed bright red and lied. "Look John you're a really nice guy and I had a lot of fun tonight but I don't think I'm really ready for a relationship just yet, it's still too soon since my divorce. I'm sorry to have strung you along but it took going out on a date for me to realise that."

"Oh. Ok." He sighed, looking very disappointed.

"I better go, I left Sam with a babysitter and I can't leave it too late." Hermione said, thankful that she could use her child as an excuse. "Thank you for a lovely evening. I'll see you next Sunday Oliver, nice meeting you again Natalie."

Soon after she had disapperated John left too leaving Oliver and Natalie alone.

"Sunday?" She inquired.

"What about it?" He asked going into the kitchen to get a Butterbeer from the fridge.

"Hermione said she's see you Sunday, _why_ will she?" She demanded, getting angry.

"At the Burrow, we were both invited for dinner next Sunday, friends of the family type thing." Oliver explained, not seeing the problem, because there wasn't actually one there.

"You're not going." She ordered him.

"What? Why not?"

"I've seen the way you are with her, she's trying to muscle her way in and be with you and you're loving every second of it." She screeched.

"What in Merlin's beard are you talking about?" Oliver sighed.

"You were all over her tonight!"

"I didn't say two words to the poor girl, how can that be all over her?"

"Poor girl? Oh so you feel sorry for her now do you?"

"Yes actually I do seeing as how her husband just left her!" Oliver stood up for her.

"Well if you love her so bloody much then why don't you just go and shag her!" Natalie screeched and stormed out of the apartment.

She didn't say away for long though. About an hour later she was back saying that she was sorry and that she didn't mean it, it was just that she liked him so much she would hate to think that he might leave her. And somehow through all the grovelling she got Oliver to agree that he wouldn't go to the burrow for dinner on Sunday. Instead he was now taking her out for a very expensive meal.


	8. Push

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

A huge thank you to –

queenofdiamonds1,  
RandomSmirf13,  
Morena-Forever,  
Flavagurl,  
yellowrosesinateacup,  
illyria-light,  
cope

* * *

_**Chapter 8  
Push**_

The next Sunday, however, Natalie was visiting her parents so Oliver was free to go to the Burrow to see his friends. He arrived early to lend a helping hand and found that the only other person in the house was Hermione.

"Where is everyone?" He asked when he realised this.

"Ginny's with Seamus today so she'll be late, Fred and George are working, Ron should be along later and I don't know about Harry I haven't spoken to him yet today."

"But you live with him, how is that possible?"

"Oh, not anymore I bought a house last week near to Diagon Alley, it's quite big the kids have their own room and I have a spare one, I've been decorating all day I want it finished by the time Millie gets home from school next week." Hermione told him with a grin.

"That's great! So where's Sam?"

"Arthur and Mollie took him for a walk, they should be back soon."

He walked over to the counter and began to help Hermione with the vegetables she was peeling, as they worked the asked each other various questions to get to know each other better, they found they had quite a lot in common.

--

When Molly returned with Hermione's son she found the two adults laughing and joking while they prepared the meal. She smiled at the scene and felt pleased that Hermione had found a new friend to help her through everything that was happening to her.

"Mummy!" Sam squealed and ran forward to hug Hermione's legs.

Oliver watched as Hermione bent down to kiss her child on the cheek and nodded as he told her all about what had happened on the walk. He took in how her long brown hair fell gracefully down her back and how her big brown eyes glowed with love and adoration for he son. He found himself wishing that she would look at him that way too. He remembered how stunning she looked on the double date she had gone on with him and Natalie.

Natalie. His mind snapped, your _girlfriend _Natalie she's the one you should be thinking about not you friend Hermione.

"So, have you spoken to John again?" He asked trying to move the subject on so his mind would stop thinking about how great her body looked in what she was wearing.

"No. He seemed really nice and I had a good time but I didn't really feel a connection, I need to be able to talk to the guy and the conversation seemed a little forced at the restaurant. Thank you for doing it though, it was very kind of you."

"Well that's what friends do right? Help each other out." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Hermione smiled at the word friends, she hadn't really thought about it before then but she decided that Oliver had moved from the 'acquaintances' category and into the 'friends' one.

--

When all had been eaten and conversation began to dwindle as all that had happened since he last time they had all met had already been shared Oliver returned home.

He called out to Natalie as he walked through the front door and flicked on the light to the front room. It was empty, as was the kitchen and the bathroom.

_She must have already gone to bed, _he thought so he began to move round his home quieter than before. He threw his coat over the back of the armchair and opened the bedroom door.

Natalie was there, lay on the bed asleep but she was not alone; there was a man with her. Oliver took in the sight before slamming the door shut making them both wake up.

"Oliver!" Natalie gasped as she saw her boyfriend.

"Get out." He snarled to the man sat in the bed looking around very confused.

--

When the man had left and Natalie had pulled on some clothes she joined Oliver where he was sat in the living room.

"How could you?" was all he said as she sat down.

"I know, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to it just happened, he delivered the pizza and we got to talking and well one thing led to another." She babbled, as though it would make it all better.

"He was the delivery guy? You only _just _met him?" Oliver asked incredulously.

"He really nice and funny! I couldn't help it!" She pleaded.

"Of course you bloody could, you just like being the centre of attention at all times so of course you'd sleep with him! Get out right now! I never want to see you again!" He yelled and yanked open the front door.

She meekly walked through it and turned to say something to him but Oliver couldn't care a less what she had to tell him so he slammed the door in her face. She knocked for a few minutes but when he ignored it she got the point and left.

"What the hell does this always happen to me?" He fumed as he stomped around the house slamming doors and draws as he did so.

--

Hermione had finished decorating the bedrooms and had put in the furniture that had been taken out of storage. They could now sleep in real bedrooms instead of the mattresses that she and Sam had put in the living room when they first moved in.

She was finally happy with the house and had the furniture where she wanted it to be. For the first night in a very long time she felt like she could actually get through this and get on with her life. There were still moments she found extremely difficult, such as when, earlier that day, Sam had asked her when daddy would be coming home and she had to find the words to tell him never in a way a seven year old would understand.

She had many interviews lined up for the next couple of days and had arranged for Sam to be picked up from school by Mrs Weasley who would look after him until Hermione came to collect him.

--

The playground was filled with children running around between parents and friends but finally Molly spotted Sam and called him over. Just as they were turning to leave she saw Oliver and walked over to say hello. She invited him back for dinner that night and he accepted, not wanting to spend another night alone.

He sat at the kitchen table and watched Molly as she worked preparing the meal, he had offered to help but she batted away his attempts to do something saying that he'd had a long day and should sit down and rest for a while. While she was working Molly asked him many questions and he was soon spilling out what had happened between him and Natalie and how he felt about it.

"Oh you poor child!" Molly gushed when he was finished speaking and rushed over to envelope him in a tight hug.

Later that evening Hermione arrived at The Burrow and was also invited to dinner. While eating Molly recounted the edited, as Sam was there, version of events that had happened to Oliver so Hermione could offer her sympathy too.

--

Later that evening Oliver returned home with his spirits lifted a little, or they were at least until he opened his front door and was greeted with a room covered in water. One of the pipes in the wall had burst coating all his floors with inches of water, running the flat and his possessions. He quickly rushed to tell the landlord who was able to turn off the water at the mains and stop any further damage but unfortunately Oliver's home was far beyond salvaging.

It was eleven thirty when Fred was woken by loud frantic knocking at the door. Groaning, he climbed out of his warm bed and went to shout at whoever it was. Oliver was stood on his doorstep, shivering and his trousers up to his knees were soaking wet. With a huge sigh he moved out of the way of the door and let Oliver step inside.

"My flat's flooded, I need a place to stay until it's repaired and dried out." Oliver told him.

"Well we haven't got a spare room, you can kip on the sofa. Now if you excuse me I'm knackered I'm going back to bed." Fred yawned and walked back into his room.

--

Oliver stayed with Fred and George for the next couple of nights, until it was time for dinner at The Burrow again. Once there, everyone sat around the table, Oliver told them of what had happened to him now and they all agreed that it wasn't fair he was getting such a run of bad luck.

"Oliver you can't possible stay with my two boys, especially if you haven't got a bed to sleep on!" Molly exclaimed, out raged at the thought.

"Well there isn't much else I ca do Molly, except check into a hotel but I want to save my money for whatever the repairs will be." He told her glumly, agreeing that he shouldn't have to sleep on a hard, lumpy old sofa every night.

"Well I have the perfect solution!" She exclaimed loudly so everyone stopped their private conversations and listened to her.

"Go on mum dazzle us!" George laughed as they waited for her to continue talking.

"Oliver why don't you go and stay with Hermione? She has a spare room and could do with the company, plus you'll be able to take Sam to school with you and baby-sit if Hermione has a job interview!" She said like it was the best plan in the world.

"Well I suppose so." Oliver stuttered feeling nervous as Hermione and Molly were both carefully watching his reaction, "that is if Hermione doesn't mind."

_Of course I mind! I hardly know him and now I have to live with him! _

"Of course not Oliver it would be lovely to have you stay." She said and smiled widely, hoping she didn't look too fake.

She wished Molly had run the idea past her before shouting it out, as she would have had time to prepare herself instead of being left completely shock by it.

"Well that settles it then! Oliver you'll stay with Hermione until your flat is fixed." Molly said in a very final tone.

She could have easily offered him a place to stay in her own home; there were now all the empty bedrooms had belonged to her children before they had grown up and moved out. But that would have been no good, what use was he around the house? None. She had seen how well they had gotten on when they were cooking the week before, they would be perfect together, Molly decided, they just needed a little push to make it happen. And if she didn't do it who would?


	9. Living Arrangments

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

A huge thank you to –

Morena-Forever,  
Spicysuga,  
Yellowrosesinateacup,  
Celi,  
Flavagurl,  
Angryteabag,  
superspunky7,  
WackyWerewolf,  
Pluto,  
Clairekp – _let me try and answer your questions – I'm not sure if there are half term breaks at Hogwarts; I don't remember seeing anything about it in the books, yes Harry is defiantly at the meals sorry if I haven't put him in it too much, and no Fred and George aren't married; they're enjoying single life living together.  
_RandomSmirf13,  
Setsuna Bu,  
illyria-light,  
Two Bit's Twobit

**A/N – **To Grace Lemieux, I'm not sure if you're reading this or not but I just wanted to say hi and thank you for emailing me!

* * *

_**Chapter 9  
**__**Living Arrangements**_

"Are you sure that you're ok with this Hermione?" Oliver asked for the fifth time as they walked up the drive lined with pink and yellow budded rose bushes to the dark wooden front door of Hermione's home. She pulled out her key and unlocked the door, walking into the still unfamiliar hallway. She looked around happily at the green painted walls with a huge bunch of white lilies sat in a huge golden vase on the shiny redwood table.

"Wow it looks amazing in here!" Oliver exclaimed looking around amazed, "You did all this so quickly."

"Thank you, I'm on my own everyday so I've had the time to get it all done. Now follow me I'll show you where you'll be staying. And before you ask me again yes I'm ok with this." She laughed as she began to climb the stairs.

She gave him a quick tour of the house before opening the door to the spare bedroom where he would sleep until his flat was repaired.

"Mummy!" Sam shrieked from his room. Hermione's face froze with panic and she ran down the hall to where her son had been staying.

"What's wrong my darling?" She asked as she burst open the door and took up her son in her arms. "Tell me where it hurts sweetheart."

"M-my head mummy! It hurts!" He wailed through his hiccups and tears.

"Let me see, let me see." Hermione said and looked at his head she rain her hands through his hair and found where it was matted with blood. "Oh Merlin! Honey how did you do this?"

"I fell of my, my br-broom!" He sobbed, "It really hurts mummy!"

Oliver walked into the young boy's room decorated with golden snitches zooming around the walls and miniature broomsticks circling the ceiling. "What's going on?" He asked Hermione.

"Sam's hurt himself I need to take him to the hospital." She told him frantically.

"It's six the Floo network will be packed, it'll take ages to get to the hospital." He told her.

"Well then I'll apperate his there." She said as her eyes filled up with tears.

"No! You're too upset I'll take him, you follow through the fireplace." He told her, taking up Sam in his arms and disapperating with a loud crack.

Hermione sat in a huddled up ball still sobbing for a further five minutes before getting up and walking into the en suite bathroom of her own bedroom. She ran the cold water for a few minutes before scooping some up in her hands and splashing it on her face. She then lent against the edges of the sink and starred into the mirror. She was so glad that Oliver had been with her, if she had been alone she would have panicked and probably splinched both herself and Sam in her hurry to get him to the doctors.

Once she felt that she would be able she too apperated to the hospital to see how Sam was doing.

"Can I help you Ma'am?" The witch behind the desk asked her.

"My son was brought in, Sam Walker; he had a head injury from falling off his broom." She told her frantically.

"Oh yeas of course, he's in room 525 go right on in." The witch told her and Hermione quickly rushed to find the room where her son was.

"Is he ok?" She asked as soon as she opened the door to the room. Oliver stood up from where he was sat by the bed Sam was lay in and offered the chair to her.

"He's had to have a couple of stitches but there's no concussion and the scar will be barely visible as soon all his hair grows back." He told her.

"They had to cut of your hair? Oh my dear baby!" Hermione cried and flung her arms around Sam in a manner that reminded Oliver of Mrs Weasley.

"I'm going to have a scar mummy!" Sam told her delighted at the fact that he'd have something to show off at school. "Can I go home now?"

"Yes of course you can." A doctor who had just walked into the room said with a smile, "all the tests are back and you're just fine Sammy boy."

"Thank you so much doctor." Hermione said gratefully as she took Sam's hand.

"You might want to stay off the broomstick for a little while Sam, you're lucky your dad got you here so quickly." The doctor said.

"Oh I'm not his father." Oliver said quickly, blushing slightly.

"I'm sorry; I presumed you were a family." The doctor said shrugging. "Anyway make sure to keep the cut clean in order for it to heal quicker."

--

Once Sam was safely tucked in bed and sleeping soundly Hermione collapsed down onto the sofa and lent back against the cushions yawning loudly as Oliver placed a butter beer on the coffee table in front of her.

"Thank you so much for today Oliver I'm glad you were here."

"It's all in a days work." He smiled as he sat down beside her.

"I promise you that not every day is like this one." She smiled wearily. "We do have days where we avoid the emergency room all together." She joked.

"Good to know, I don't think I'd be able to take the drama!" He laughed.

"I supposed I better tell Mark." Hermione sighed.

And with that brief mention of her ex-husband Oliver stopped laughed and was reminded of all that his new friend had been through in the past several months. It still amazed him how strong she was being about it all. He also knew that it would be so difficult for her going through it.

"He won't be happy about it I tell you. I can hear him now _you should have been watching him more carefully _blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He always had to make everything into a _huge _drama." She sighed and covered her face with her hands.

"Well I'm sure that can wait until the morning. Right now I think you need a drink." Oliver said and with a grin and pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses.

--

The next morning Hermione woke before the alarm and smiled as she listened to the birds greeting the sunrise. She quickly click off her clock before it had chance to issue its first beep and swung her legs out of the bed and stumbled, sleepily into the bathroom. Once she had showered she wrapped herself in the knee length purple silk robe that Millie and Sam had given her for her birthday. After brushing her teeth she ambled downstairs where she turned on the radio and began cooking breakfast.

Although she could use magic to do it she preferred cooking the Muggle way whenever possible, she was Muggleborn and liked to keep to her roots. She cracked two eggs into a frying pan and began singing along to the song that had just been announced. This was her new morning routine that Sam happily joined in with, as soon as her heard the radio click on he would leave his toys and join his mother in the kitchen to help make breakfast.

Oliver was woken by the sound of laughing and singing; he lay in bed and listened to the people below him enjoying themselves, wondering how on earth anyone could be that cheery in the mornings. After a few minutes he got up and pulled on a pair the pair of jeans that he had been wearing the previous night and pulled a t-shirt out of the bag he had neglected to unpack before trudging downstairs. He smiled at the sight he saw, Sam was sat up on one of the work surfaces while Hermione danced around the kitchen with her wand levitating various objects and making them float around her son. He laughed as she got the bowl of fruit to wiz around him and Oliver joined in with the young boy's laughter, making Hermione jump and the spell to be broken, the fruit falling to the floor.

"Oh Oliver you scared me!" She exclaimed placing her hand over her heart and let out a breathless laugh.

"Sorry Hermione." He said trying to keep the smile off his face as he bent down to help her pick up the fruit.

"Don't worry about it, now do you want to eat, I've made a cooked breakfast." She said walking over to the sizzling frying pan filled with fried eggs, bacon, sausages and tomatoes.

"That would be great." Oliver grinned and sat down at the pine table with the large bottle green fruit bowl, now refilled with fruit, sat in the middle. "The last person to cook me breakfast was my mother." He told her with a sigh as she transferred the food onto a lemon yellow plate and placed it in front of him.

"Well then you're sadly missing out." She told him as she went back to get Sam's food too. "Sam do you have any homework this weekend?" She asked him.

"No mummy." He said smiling sweetly.

"Oliver does he have any homework?" She asked him, not believing her son for one second.

"He has maths Hermione; can you pass me the ketchup?"

"Right I want that maths done before lunchtime ok?" Hermione told her son who groaned and muttered something under his breath.

As Hermione leant over the table to pass Oliver the sauce she realised how little she was wearing, pulled the dressing gown around her more tightly and stepped back against the work surface feeling embarrassed.

"I, erm, I'm going to go and get dressed, do you mind looking Sam for a few minutes?" Hermione asked as she quickly rushed out of the room to the safety of her bedroom.

--

Sunday morning Hermione made sure to get dressed before going down to cook not wanting to go through the embarrassment that she had experienced the day before. This time it was Oliver's turn to be embarrassed, as Hermione came down the stairs and walked into the kitchen to find her new lodger stuffing his face straight out of one of the cupboards.

"Oliver what are you doing?" She asked, shocked at not being the first one up.

"Oh Hermione! God I'm sorry, I was starving I guess I went a little overboard though." He said looking sheepish.

"Don't worry about it; this is your home as well at the moment so you should help yourself. Now are you full or shall I make you something?" She asked as she pulled her hair up in a pink scrunchie.

"Oh yes please!" Oliver said with the eagerness of a small child. Although, unlike a small child, he watched the young woman in front of him, in her joggers and t-shirt that was so big it slipped off one of her slender shoulders, with her hair off her face he was able to see her elegant neck and almost flawless cheek bones, she looked so beautiful even without any makeup on.

"So you're looking quite gorgeous today my dear." he told her.

Hermione turned around from the cook to look at his face, trying to work out whether or not he was joking. After deciding he looked entirely sincere she blushed, smiled slightly and thanked him. she was unused to compliments off men, she couldn't remember the last time Mark had told her she looked nice or anything of that sort, so she was quite out of practise on how to deal with it all.

Oliver got up from the chair where he was sat watching her and walked over to where Hermione was stood. She turned on lent against the counter facing him and he placed his hands against the counter on either side of her. They were so close that they were almost treading on each other's feet.

Their heads drew closer and closer until their lips finally brushed each other and their eyes closed as they began to kiss. Oliver wrapped his arms around her, placing one on her hip on the other on her back pushing her into him a little more.

"Mummy!" Sam called as he came bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen, Hermione quickly pushed Oliver off her and turned to face the frying pan where she was cooking. Oliver stood in shock of being rejected for a few seconds before sitting back down at the table, determined not to take it to heart. Since he had been cheated on by Amy the only other girl he had been in a relationship with had let him down so maybe it was better that he didn't get involved with another potential disappointment.

Hermione ran her thumb over her lips, it had been a long time since her had kissed someone like that, and been kissed in response with such want and passion. But she shouldn't get involved with someone else; she told herself firmly, it wouldn't be fair on the children. They wouldn't understand. They would think that she was trying to replace their father, which she had no intention of ever doing, they just weren't ready for that yet, and neither was she. It was still too soon, she didn't think she'd be able to cope with being hurt again and she really didn't want to take the risk.


	10. Job Hunting

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

Thanks to my wonderful reviewers you guys keep me going! –

Yellowrosesinateacup,  
Celi,  
illyria-light, - _Thanks for your comments, you're right about the stitches thing, I just wanted to convey the childhood reaction to injuries as well as the adults, as for Hermione and Oliver as they are both as you said venerable they will be confused about their feelings but don't worry they're nowhere near being able to form a relationship yet. That would make the story way to short!  
_loving.wood,  
angryteabag,  
Morena-Forever,  
RandomSmirf13

**A/N **– sorry it took so long to update, last week I was glued to the TV gaining information about the bombing of London, thankfully I was fine and my heart goes out to everyone who got caught up in it and all of their families.  
Then this week I have been practising like mad as today was my Grade 4 Double Bass music exam. But now that's over I will be able to get back to writing.

* * *

_**Chapter 10  
Job Hunting**_

Monday arrived and for once Hermione didn't wake up to the sound of her alarm clock cutting through her dreams. In fact she didn't wake up at all, there was no need; she had made Sam's lunch the night before, he could quite happily get himself dressed and Oliver was taking him into school so Hermione had a nice break in routine. Plus she didn't want to have to see Oliver until she was ready, the kiss had thrown her, it shouldn't have happened, she knew that much.

Once the front had slammed shut she dragged herself out of bed to go downstairs to clean up the mess that she expected to have been made from breakfast, but to her shock the room was exactly how she had left it the previous night. The only difference was that there was a note on the table; Hermione picked it up to read while she made herself a cup of coffee.

_Hermione, _

_Have taken Sam with me to school, he had toast this morning and I made sure he had all his books and his lunch with him. I'll bring him back with me this afternoon; it will give me a good excuse to finish early, so there's no need for you to come to school today. _

_Oliver _

Hermione smiled, glad that she had the day to herself; se had an interview that afternoon and wouldn't have to worry about running over time and being late to collect Sam. And, she told herself, at least now she'd have the day to work out how to talk to Oliver about the kiss. Her feelings were still too mixed up to sort out into any logical order, it was too soon after her divorce to be looking for a new relationship and there was Sam and Millie to consider, Hermione was sure they wouldn't like the prospect of her dating. But then on the other hand, it could make her happy, and she still deserved to be happy didn't she?

--

At eleven Hermione stepped out of the shower and began to blow dry her hair using the tip of her wand. Once her hair was fully dried and she was wrapped up in a fluffy light blue towel she padded into her bedroom to begin to hard task of deciding what to wear. The job was for a low level position in the Department of Inter-magical Co-operation, pretty much just a desk job, but it would be a source of income at least.

She arrived at the ministry building and was given a visitors' pass before being ushered into a small waiting room filled with six other nervous faces at various degrees of panic. Each candidate was called and questioned, returning to the room looking just slightly more relieved than when they had left. Hermione remembered to smile sweetly and list all her good attributes as much as she could. Upon returning to the waiting room she felt quite pleased with how it had turned out, feeling that she would quite easily be able to do the job.

Finally the interview process was over and Hermione could go back home, she arrived just before Oliver and Sam did.

"Mummy! Mummy! Mummy! Look what I made you!" Sam shouted as he bounded out of the fireplace and into the kitchen where Hermione was seated.

In his small hands was a piece of parchment with a crayon drawing on it. With a smile Hermione took it off him to see what it was he had created. What was on it made the breath in her throat catch and tears prick in the corner of her eyes.

"It's of you me, daddy and his special friend when we all live in a big house together." Sam explained when she did not speak.

"It's really well drawn love." Hermione choked out, trying to keep her composure in front of him.

"Why have your eyes gone all funny mummy?" He asked with a frown upon his forehead.

"It's nothing sweetheart, you go and play in your room for a while ok?"

After Sam had happily bounded out of the room, blissfully ignorant to the sadness he had just caused, Hermione crumpled the picture and threw it into the bin before walking over to the sink to wash her face.

--

At nine o'clock of that evening when Sam had been put to bed and was snoring peacefully against his soft pillow Hermione was able to rest.

"Millie comes home next week then." Oliver said when he joined her, "You looking forward to it?"

"Of course, I can't wait for her to see her new room. I bet you're looking forward to the holiday too." Hermione smiled.

"More than anything. I love Christmas, it's the best thing Muggles invented. Although the present buying isn't too great." He sighed, thinking of past times shopping with Amy, having fun and then the years when he's been alone and having to search for presents for loved ones. At those times he usually thought it was hardly worth the effort.

"I've already got all mine." Hermione grinned. "And I used Mark's credit card to buy them. A good job really I don't think I'd have been able to afford them otherwise, I better get a job soon I've nearly used up all of my savings. The child support is just about keeping us afloat at the moment."

"Well let me pay some rent then, it's not fair me presuming that you'll house and feed me for nothing." Oliver said quickly, feeling guilty.

"Oh no! Oliver I didn't mean it like that at all. Of course you don't need to pay rent, I like having you here, it's good having someone else to talk to." Hermione said hurriedly, her turn to feel embarrassed.

"Well if you're sure, you know I don't mind helping out if I'm needed."

Hermione nodded with a smile upon her face and a warmth in her heart, it was good to feel you had a true friendship in a time of need, just like she was feeling.

A few minutes later the was a short rapping upon the window, Hermione drew back the thick red curtains and opened the window to let in the large regal looking owl hovering outside. She took the letter from its beak and it flew off into the dark of the night. Once it was gone, the window shut, curtains drawn back and she was sat down again Hermione looked at the letter. It was addressed to her in thick black italic script. On the other side of the folded up piece of parchment was the crest that sat above the doors leading into the Ministry.

"It's about my job interview!" Hermione told Oliver excitedly as she broke the wax seal and unfolded it.

_Dear Ms Hermione A. Granger, _

_Thank you for attending the interview for Junior Executive for the Department of Inter-Magical Co-operation. Unfortunately we cannot offer you the job. We apologise for taking your time and ask for you to consider looking for other jobs the Ministry has to offer, as you may be able to use your skills in another way._

This time with no son around to be strong for Hermione let the tears flow down her cheeks and drop onto the paper she was holding, disturbing the ink and making patches of wet upon it.

"Hermione what's wrong?" Oliver asked worriedly rushing over to take the letter from her hand and read it himself.

Once he had taken in what the letter had said he wordlessly pulled his new friend into a comforting hug. For a few minutes they simple stood there with Hermione sobbing into his chest. When her cries subsided he pulled away.

"I'm crap aren't I?" She said with a depressed sigh.

"No you're not Hermione, you just haven't found the right job yet. Something will come along and you'll be glad that you didn't get this crappy job because that one will be the one for you." He told her and she looked up at him.

"Is that how you feel about teaching?"

"Most of the time, I mean everyone has their off days, but I truly believe that this is what I'm supposed to do. It's like fate or something."

"Oh you don't believe all that do you?" Hermione scoffed, "You're in danger of sounding like Professor Trelawney."

They both laughed at memories of lessons in Divination and how rubbish a teacher she was.

"See you're smiling again, it's forgotten already. Now tell me what is it you would actually like to do?" He asked.

Hermione thought about it for a while before answering. "I don't really know, I got good N.E.W.Ts so it's not like I'm that limited with what I can do but I guess I want something that uses the skill I've learnt since leaving school too. But what would that be? Having kids, fat lot of good that would do me." She gave a sad little chuckle.

"Now there's where you're wrong." Oliver said as a grin spread across his face.

"What?" Hermione asked wanting to know why he was so happy.

"Oh you'll see." He told her conspiringly "Just go to bed and you'll find out in the morning."

Hermione tried to protest but Oliver would say nothing else as he pushed her up the stairs and into her room. She spent the night thinking about what it was he had meant and by the time she woke up the next morning he had already taken Sam to school.

Down in the kitchen there was another note from her new lodger.

_Hermione, _

_I know you're expecting that I would just go off and leave you wondering what it was I meant last night and you're right I'm not going to tell you yet. But if you come to school at 2:15pm you will find out all you need to know. Dress smart-ish but not too intimidating._

_See you this afternoon, _

_Oliver. _

Hermione let out a growl of frustration, if anything the note had confused her even more than before. She made her way back upstairs and tried to work out how the hell to dress smartish-ly and not be intimidating at the same time. It took her quite to work out how to do it.

--

At quarter past two Hermione arrived at school and walked into the reception area.

"Ah Ms Granger! How lovely, Mr Wood said we should expect you. Please follow me." A tall woman that Hermione recognised as being the deputy head teacher said.

Hermione did as she said and found herself in a large empty room.

"Well what do you think?" Mrs Jones asked her.

"Erm about what?" Hermione stuttered, feeling extremely stupid.

"Is it enough space to set up a nursery?" Mrs Jones sighed.

"A nursery? Why are you asking me?" Hermione frowned trying to work out why she was actually stood there.

"Well if you're going to run it you should know how much space you need."

"M-me r-run the nursery?"

"Yes that is why you're here is it not."

It took all of three seconds for Hermione to make her mind up. "Yes that's it, sorry my mind's on other things. Erm, yes this should be fine for a nursery."

"Very well then. Now we're looking to start in the new school year so we have time to find children to join us and you can decorate it in anyway you'd like to, within reason of course. That's it I believe, I'm glad to have you on board."

Hermione grinned as she shook her new colleague's hand. Maybe things will be ok after all, she thought to herself as she walked down the corridor to find Oliver and thank him.


	11. Not Friends

**Getting Over It

* * *

**

Thank you so much to my reviewers, sorry it's taken so long to update again, I've had a load to do with the end of the term but I'm on my holidays now so hopefully I should have a little more time to write –  
**queenofdiamonds1,  
****Celi,  
****illyria-light,  
****yellowrosesinateacup  
****Morena-Forever,  
****AngelPrncss07  
****superspunky7**

**A/N – **Very sorry about the shortness of this one but I didn't want to put anything else with it so and there's only so much I could have included, I promise the next one will be longer! Thank you for reading, don't forget to review it feeds my ego and it's being kind of starved at the moment.  
**A/N2** – Thank you to **illyria-light **for becoming my beta reader and making this story at least make sense.

* * *

**_Chapter 11  
Not Friends_**

Two months from when Hermione was offered her job Christmas and New Years had come and gone, and she was starting work on her new nursery. Millie had returned to Hogwarts for the spring term and Oliver was still living with them as the 'small' leak in the pipes turned out to be a huge problem and they had to rip out the whole of the water system and start again. She didn't mind that thought; in fact, it was quite useful as it meant that she could stay late working on designing the room and not worry about having to pick up Sam. Although she did miss not spending as much time with her children, Millie being at school and Sam making friends while she worked, it was still a struggle to keep everything on time.

The room was getting on wonderfully; there were a few tasks that she would have to get a builder in for before she could start to decorate, and these tasks could take a few months, so she was keen on getting them done quite quickly as the nursery was now due to start in April, just four months away. Many children had already put their names down for places, so Hermione felt the pressure of living up to expectations and deadlines. Even though she was not used to it, Hermione found it all quite fun. She was a highly practical person and now she was getting a paycheck and was a lot less stressed.

This particular night, however, Hermione decided that she would take the evening off to relax and spend some time at home. With a loud crack she apparated home, landing on the sofa. Unfortunately, the spot she had chosen was where Oliver had just sat with a glass of lemonade in his hand. They both let out startled yelps as she landed and Hermione jumped off him quickly, but not before he had had time to spill his drink all over her.

"Oh Merlin! Oliver I'm sorry I didn't expect you to be there." Hermione blushed as she turned to face him.

"Don't worry about it Hermione, can't be helped. Although maybe next time you could just apparate into the hall." Oliver smiled looking pointedly at the ceiling.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing." He answered a little too quickly.

"Then why are you looking up there?" She asked and looked up to see if there was anything actually of any interest that he could have been looking at.

"Because my drink made your top turn see-through." He blushed and Hermione looked down to see that her white shirt was stuck to her body and you could in fact see her pink lacy bra quite clearly through it. She too blushed and hurried out of the room.

--

A clean and dry shirt later, she rejoined Oliver downstairs who was helping Sam with homework, very basic magic of making sparks appear from his wand. After fourteen attempts he finally made a tiny little fizzle, maybe not yet a spark but progress that he was excited about, and happy as Oliver decided that they should call it a day, as he too was worn out. She sat and watched them for a little while before going into the kitchen prepare dinner.

"Oh you don't need to make me anything," Oliver said as he walked into the room.

"Why not?" Hermione asked as she stopped stirring the pan of pasta sauce with her wand.

"I've got a date." He grinned and puffed his chest out proudly.

"Oh." Hermione said rather half-heartedly, "That's great. Who is it?"

"A single mum from school. I think what I said to you when I was drunk was right; I'd rather have a ready made kid than have to go through all the pregnancy debacle. How the heck did you do it?" He chuckled and walked from the room remembering how mortified he had been when Hermione had recounted the events of his birthday party to him.

Hermione leaned against the counter and heaved a great sigh. An odd feeling in the pit of her stomach bubbled up and she frowned as she tried to work out what it was. Jealousy? No it couldn't be! Why would she be jealous? After all, she only saw Oliver as a friend.

--

"Don't wait up!" He called as he left the house at seven that evening to go to meet Stephy Greenwood.

Hermione was getting Sam to brush his teeth at the time so didn't hear him leave until the door slammed. The feeling came back, but she refused to acknowledge it and instead focused on getting her son ready.

Oliver was looking forward to the evening. Stephy was a striking red head with crystal blue eyes, she had a child in the year above the one that Oliver taught, so he had met her at a parents evening. Her son had been running down the hallways making a lot of noise and Oliver had scolded him. Stephy had then come over to see what was going on. One thing led to another and they had made a date.

Unfortunately, as they sat at their table to eat their meals, it became increasingly more obvious that Oliver was paying absolutely no attention to the lovely woman sitting opposite him. Finally Stephy decided she had had enough and walked out, leaving Oliver embarrassed and with the bill.

--

At eleven thirty, the door opened quietly and Oliver crept in. He was tiptoeing across the living room trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake anybody up when Hermione spoke.

"You're home early."

He jumped and spun around to where she sat on the sofa, head rested against the arm and her legs curled up, feet burrowed underneath one of the cushions to keep them warm.

"Jeeze 'Mione you scared the life out of me; I didn't see you there." He gasped trying to slow down his now rapidly beating heart.

"So how come your back at this time?" Hermione asked, trying to keep the hop out of her voice. She knew it was wrong to think like that but she really couldn't do anything about it; she was attracted to Oliver Wood and didn't like the idea of him dating anyone else one little bit.

"You want the honest truth?" He asked, hoping she'd say no and he wouldn't actually have to tell her.

"Yeah, spill the beans. I want all the juicy gossip." Hermione smiled, patting the sofa cushion besides her signalling him to sit down before he spoke so she wouldn't have to crane her neck to hold a conversation.

He did so quickly, but it took him a while before he actually started to speak; he had to gather his thoughts first and put them in order. "Okay, well, don't freak out because I could have happily gone on not telling you this," he said and Hermione nodded eagerly, wanting him to continue.

"I came home so early because all the time I was sat there with my date I couldn't get you out of my head, so she got annoyed and walked out. I don't blame her really. In fact, I think I may have called her Hermione a few times. Yeah, if I were her I would hate me as much about now." His cheeks tinged red as he looked up to gage her reaction to this piece of information that he had just given her, hoping that she wouldn't be too angry.

But anger was far from the face he saw looking back at him: one of happiness, confusion and sadness all rolled into one un-identifiable emotion shown instead.

"Merlin, Oliver, what is wrong with us? What are we, really?" Hermione sighed and buried her face into the palms of her hand.

"We're friends, Hermione," Oliver said, but it came out as more of a hopeful question than a firm statement.

"No we're not. Friends don't go on dates and think of their friends when they should be thinking of the person that they are with, the one they should be attracted to. Friends don't spend the whole night thinking what the other would be doing on the date, what they would be talking about and how they would look, how good they would look. We're not friends Oliver, not by a long shot."

"Then what are we? We're not in a relationship, we know too much about each other to be mere acquaintances, so where does that leave us?" He asked desperately not wanting whatever they had to end between them.

"I guess we're just… us." Hermione sighed when she could think of no word.

Neither person spoke for a long time; they simply sat and thought about that that had been said, where it left them and what they would do about it.

"I don't think I like this 'us' very much," Oliver said finally breaking the thin silence.

"Me neither," she whispered back.

"So what do we do now?"

Oliver moved forward and slowly took Hermione's hand in his. Standing up, he pulled her, very genteelly up with him so she was in front of him. Letting go of her small, soft hand he moved his to cup her cheek, looking into her eyes every few seconds as though asking for permission to do what he was doing. When no protest was made, he inched his head closer until their lips touched for the second time. One of her arms rested on his back, pushing him into her and her other hand ran through his hair and over his neck.

But this kiss was so much more than just a kiss; this was the opening of something new and fearful for both of them. This was something that they both wanted and yet both were petrified of at the same time.

They pulled away and looked into each other's eyes: deep ocean blue gazing into chocolate brown. An identical satisfied smile spread across the couples' lips.

"You know what, Hermione?" he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to his body.

"What?" She smiled as he kissed her neck.

"I think I can live with being not friends as long as we can keep on doing this."

"I have no plan to stop," she whispered back as she lent in for another kiss.


	12. Unwelcome Appearance

**Getting Over It

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**A/N – **I looked back at chapter 11 and realised what you were all talking about, sorry, the paragraphs were there so I don't know why they didn't show up. I've reposted the chapter so if anyone wants to read it now it's in a less confusing state it should be there.

**A/N 2 – **So have you all heard about the not being able to respond to reviewers in chapters rule that have not come up with? How unfair is that! I have taken off all your names, as I don't want this story to be taken off the site but please know that I am still as grateful for reviews as I ever was.

**A/N 3 – **I also want to apologise to** illyria-light** for posting this chapter before you've sent it back to me corrected but it's been almost two weeks and it's not fair to everyone else if I don't update. I know you'll probably be mad at me so I'm very sorry, but if you're not mad and you've just been busy can you please let me know that you're ok because I'm starting to worry something's happened to you.

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**_Chapter 12_**  
_**Unwelcome Appearance**_

"Yuck you guys are kissing!" Millie exclaimed as she walked into the living room where Oliver and Hermione were cuddled up on the sofa, arms around each other "I did not come home for the Easter holidays to see you two all over each other, it's yucky."

Three months had passed since Hermione and Oliver had gotten together and they were both still acting like two teenagers in love. To her children it was sickening and they tried to avoid them when they started to kiss, which happened to be an awful lot of the time.

Mrs Weasley on the other hand could not help but gloat, it was her idea, after all, that Oliver should move in with Hermione while his flat was being fixed and none of this would have happened if he hadn't. This little fact she had passed on to absolutely anybody and everybody who would listen to her.

Oliver's flat had been fixed and he had gone back for a few nights to sort everything out but he preferred spending the night with Hermione so he usually only went back to collect any mail and to make sure he hadn't been burgled.

--

"Come on we've got to go now, Molly said she could use my help with dinner and you want to be able to play a game of Qudditch with Harry before we eat don't you?" Hermione yelled up the stairs while she grabbed the pot of Floo powder and lit a fire with her wand. Her children thudded loudly down the stars and into the living room where she and Oliver were waiting to go to the Burrow for dinner. Oliver stepped into the fireplace with Sam and soared off to the Weasley's home and Hermione followed with Millie soon after.

Both children ran past Molly as though she wasn't really there and out into the garden where Harry Ron and Ginny were tossing around a Quaffle, eager to join in the game and play on broomsticks.

"You can go too." Hermione said to Oliver and laughed as he ran out into the garden with all the eagerness of a small child in a sweet shop.

"Hello Hermione dear how are you?" Molly asked and pulled the girl into a warm hug.

"Hi Mrs Weasley I'm fine thank you."

"So how are you and Oliver doing?"

Hermione smiled and walked over to the sink to peel the potatoes by magic as she began gossiping with Mrs Weasley.

The food was ready and they all sat down to eat, half way through the main course a fire sprung up in the grate and turned green, seconds later a figure stepped out into the room.

"Mark!" Hermione gasped, shocked to see him turning up at the Burrow of all places, he had always tried to think up any excuse to get out of going when her was invited, but now he was here completely by free will.

"Daddy!" Millie and Sam's faces broke into identical grins, happy to see their father at a time when it wasn't arranged.

The whole table stared in shock as Hermione's ex-husband looked back at them.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing here?" Hermione demanded her cheeks flushing red with anger.

"I need to talk to you 'Mione, alone." He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside before she could protest. Harry, Ron and Oliver all got up to follow them but Mr Weasley stopped them.

"Let them talk boys, she'll call us if she needs us." He said firmly and the three men sat back down grudgingly.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked again once the door was closed.

"I want you back." He said grabbing her wrists and pulling her towards him.

"What?"

"I broke up with Amy, I want you back, I made a mistake finishing it with you but we're all allowed to make mistakes now and then." He said and lent down, trying to kiss her. She let out a loud scream as she struggled to get him off of her and seconds later Harry, Ron and Oliver crashed out into the garden. They pulled Mark off her and grappled him to the ground. Oliver walked over and took Hermione in his arms, making sure that she wasn't hurt.

"I know you still love me Hermione, me and Amy had a good thing going but I ended it to come back to you."

"No Mark, you're wrong. I don't love you not after what you've done to me." She hissed.

"Think about it, I'm giving you the chance to give our children a happy life with their mother and father living together, do you really want to stop them having a good childhood?"

"Don't you dare stoop so low as to bring the kids into this Mark, this is between you and I, it has nothing to do with them!" Hermione pure hatred for the man stood opposite her.

"Wait a minute!" Oliver stopped and let go of Hermione and turned back to face Mark fury and confusion clouding his face. "Amy? _My _Amy?"

He took a step back and looked at Hermione's ex, "I remember you, you bloody bastard!"

He lunged forward and began punching Mark in the face, letting out all the pent up anger that he had bottled away ever since the day he caught Amy in bed with another man. The man he was looking at in fact.

Hermione looked across to the house and, to her horror, when Harry, Ron and Oliver had rushed out in her aid they had not closed the door firmly behind them and it had swung back open. Her children was sat wide-eyed, tears flowing down their faces, watching their father being beaten up, both too young to understand why it was happening.

"Oliver stop!" She cried and rushed forward, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him off of Mark, as much as she secretly wanted to watch him being hurt badly by her new boyfriend.

"What? You're sticking up for him now?" Oliver yelled as he stood up. "This guy cheated on you, broke up your family and left you homeless! He's the one that I caught Amy with and you _sticking up for him_?"

"No Oliver it's not like that!" Hermione pleaded but from the look on Oliver's face she could see it would be a lost cause.

"And so she should," Mark said as he staggered to his feet wiping the blood from his bleeding nose, "She does of course still love me. You're a mere passing fancy and you both know it."

"Mark shut up!" Hermione ordered in her sternest voice, usually reserved for when Millie or Sam had done something wrong.

"I've had enough of this; all bloody women are the same!" Oliver snapped and disapperated without another word.

For a long while Hermione simply stared open mouthed at the spot where he had been just seconds before as fury bubbled up from the pit of her stomach.

"HOW DARE YOU!" She roared, turning on her ex-husband. "You had absolutely no right to say that. You know as well as I do that it is in no way true, you have just ruined my relationship with him!"

"Oh come on baby you know it's true!" Mark chortled, "You're just a weak and feeble woman, you've had your fun playing the pity card but now it's time to come back home and cook me my dinner."

Harry and Ron both drew their wands ready to do all kinds of damage to the vile man but they were too slow, with a flash of purple light Mark was back on the floor with orange boils all over his face.

"What have you done?" He cried as he lifted his hands to his face, feeling the large oozing bumps on his before perfectly smooth skin.

"Your personality is so ugly I thought I should make your face match. Don't worry it'll wear off in a month of so." She smiled. "Now get up and leave. I have a job and two wonderful children, whom I shall be suing for total custody of; I don't care what you say you'll do. I have a house and friends to support me and I am a much better parent than you so you don't scare me any more. I want nothing from you apart from your child support money going into my Gringotts account."

With these words she held her head high and walked back inside the Burrow, followed by Ron and Harry and slammed the door firmly in his face.

Her high spirits lasted all of two minutes though as the daunting reality hit her, Oliver probably hated her guts and her children would probably be scared for life.

On Sunday afternoon Hermione took Millie down to King's Cross Station so she could catch the Hogwarts Express back to school for the last term of school. The whole of the previous day had been spent explaining in terms that both her children would understand, what Mark had done and why Oliver had hit him. In the end they both agreed that Hermione should have jinxed him a lot worse than she had done.

On the one hand she was thrilled that her children favoured her now but on the other she felt a great amount of guilt for turning them against their own father, however much of a scumbag he was.

She spent to rest of the day dreading the next morning when she would go back to work and see Oliver, she knew he had been hurt by her actions and hated the fact that she had caused him pain.

--

The morning came and with it a stomach full of butterflies. As she got both her son and herself ready to go Hermione thought of many different things she could say to Oliver when she bumped into him in one of the corridors. This, of course made her button the front of her blouse all wrong and Sam had to tell her, burn the toast and spill the milk all over herself. By the time she had cleaned it up and changed her clothes she was running late and was completely frazzled as she and her son got to school. This meant that she had no time to go and talk to Oliver before classes began.

Break passed with Hermione searching her store cupboard for the lesson plans for the next lesson; again she had no time to find Oliver. It was the end of lunch before she had any free time. Quickly walking through the hallway she got to his classroom to find that it was empty. He wasn't in the staff room either Hermione found after walling to the other side of the school to check.

Finally she found him out on the playground filling in for the member of staff who should have been on duty but was off sick that day. She crossed the playground to go and speak with him but was stopped in her tracks by his reaction. He had looked up and saw her coming and instantly walked away.

Hermione went to follow him but he did the exact same thing again. With tears welling up in her eyes she slowly turned and walked back to her classroom felling defeated.


	13. Confrontations

**Getting Over It**

_**Chapter 13**_  
_**Confrontations**_

Oliver sat in his bedroom atop the bed fuming. He knew he was being over the top, but anytime he thought of Hermione, an image of her and Mark flashed into his head and another surge of anger would ripple through him.

It was even worse in school. He would see her in the corridors knowing that she wanted to talk to him, but he stayed away in case what she was telling him was that it was over and that she was getting back with Mark. It wouldn't surprise him ¾ it had happened enough times for him to not get his hopes up and think that a girl would favour him.

Unfortunately his constant bad mood was beginning to take its toll on his work and even the children in his classes could tell something was wrong. So, that would mean that, of course, the staff noticed it and probably the head teacher – which would be in no way good.

--

Just mere miles away, Hermione sat in the same position on her bed, but she was not fuming, far from it – she was wallowing. She sat, a bowl full of chocolate chip ice cream and her magically fuelled TV playing an old chick flick that she must have seen a million times before, in her oldest, baggiest clothes – a dark purple t-shirt that was many sizes too big and a pair or drawstring black jogging bottoms – feeling sorry for herself.

Sam was in bed and she could finally let down the mask she had to wear all day: to be strong and happy so that he wouldn't worry or be sad; it would kill her to know that she was the cause of her son's pain. But having to act at all times when she really just wanted to sit and cry was completely exhausting.

When she woke, for once before Sam came in and burrowed into the bed with her for a cuddle, Hermione was extremely glad it was Saturday, as she wouldn't have to see Oliver's cold expression until Monday morning. There was a letter on the coffee table when she walked into the living room. It was from her parents offering to look after Sam that day as they thought she 'could do with a rest'. Usually, she would be offended by the comment but today she accepted it and replied to tell them she would drop off their grandson a little later. She then wrote a note to Ginny to invite her around for dinner. She decided that seeing her friend would be a good way for her to work through some of her emotions.

--

Hermione was still in the shower when Ginny rang the doorbell, so she hastily rinsed out the suds from her hair and pulled her pink fluffy dressing gown with a daisy on the pocket around her to open the door for her friend.

"Merlin, you look awful!" were the first words from Ginny's mouth.

Even thought it was true – her makeup was running down her face, her nose was red, her eyes puffy from crying and her hair plastered to her face – Hermione still felt indignant.

"I've changed my mind. I don't want you here anymore," Hermione joked as they walked into the living room.

"I'm sorry. You'll only hear compliments coming from my mouth from now on," Ginny grinned.

"Good, that's the way it should be," she managed to smile back. "Make yourself at home I'll just go and sort myself out."

Ginny was standing at the stove stirring a saucepan with her wand when Hermione returned downstairs twenty minutes later.

"What are you doing?" She asked, "I meant to cook for you."

"You cook for people every day. This is your night off," Ginny told her firmly. "I've sent an owl to your parents and they said they'll keep Sam tonight; you can go and pick him up tomorrow afternoon. Now pour us both a glass of wine and sit down."

Hermione quickly complied with her orders, glad that for once she didn't have to be in charge and that there was someone looking after her.

"Now we're going to have this out," Ginny said sternly as she sat down, leaving whatever was in the pot to simmer. "Have you spoken to him?"

"No, anytime I go near him at school he just walks away, if I send him a letter it's returned unopened. I've tried but he doesn't want to hear it."

"Have you tried talking to him out of school?"

"When? Out of school Sam is with me, I can't just drag him along with me so he can witness another argument."

"Can't Mark have him?"

"I haven't spoken to him since that night." Hermione admitted, "And I'm not about to contact him – I'm furious at him."

For a while neither woman said anything, both being wrapped up in her own thoughts. Finally, Hermione spoke, ending the sad silence.

"I didn't feel like this when Mark and I split up. Should that be right? I didn't feel anything like this level of sadness; he was my husband and the father of my children. I only dated Oliver for a few months but compared to how I feel at the moment I couldn't care a less about my divorce."

"That's because you and Mark were never right for each other." Ginny told her.

"What do you mean?"

"You and Mark were never in love in the way that you and Oliver are."

"I don't love Oliver!" Hermione chuckled, "How can I? I was only with him for a little while, not long enough to fall in love."

"You don't need a time before you can fall in love; if it's going to happen it will. It's just that sometimes it takes a while to realise that it's love you're feeling."

"Yeah right!" Hermione snorted.

"No, really. It can happen. I fell in love with Harry in those few seconds that I saw him on King's Cross Station when you started school."

"But you two aren't together are you?"

"Sometimes the timings wrong. I still love him, though. I just got over the fact that I was in love with him."

Hermione nodded, trying to understand what her friend was telling her. "So, I'm in love with Oliver? I just don't know it yet?"

"Yes, and he's in love with you; it's so obvious!" Ginny exclaimed. "Think about it; you said you never felt this way when you broke up with Mark and you loved him so you must love Oliver more if you feel worse, and it's quite clear that you do feel worse."

Hermione thought about it for a while, thinking of Oliver and realising that when she did her heart felt warm and she couldn't help but smile when she pictured his face; it was true – she was in love with Oliver Wood.

"So what do I do? He hates me," she asked sadly.

"No, he doesn't Hermione, he's just scared that he's going to lose you. He thinks that you'd rather be with Mark. You need to set him straight before he gives up on you because once he does you'll never be able to get what you had back."

Ginny pointed her wand to the pot and it emptied the soup she had made into two bowls, which zoomed over to the table along with a plate of sliced bread.

"Now you will eat it this, then you will go to bed and when you get up in the morning you will go see Oliver, ok?"

Hermione nodded and started to eat.

--

It was past eleven when Ginny actually left and Hermione did get to bed, but as she lay under the cold covers she tossed and turned, but could not sleep. Throwing back the blanket she leapt out of bed and pulled open the wardrobe, pulling a pair of jeans on under her nightie. She jammed her feet into a pair of shoes and buttoned and belted up her black coat before disappearing.

She appeared outside Oliver's door and started knocking frantically. It was a few minutes before he opened it.

"Hermio-" He began but before he could even finish saying her name she had interrupted.

"No. You're not going to talk this time; you're just going to listen. I love you ok? I love you more than I've loved any other man. I am not going to cheat on you, especially not with my ex-husband. That is why he is an ex, because I don't want to be with him anymore. You need to get over this belief that all relationships you are going to have will end in heartbreak because if you think that then it's going to happen. This isn't a joke to me. I have my children to think about too, and I'm not going to introduce a new man into their lives just so I can dump him again in a few weeks. I thought we had a good thing. But you obviously don't trust me at all. So you need to think Oliver. You need to decide whether or not you can take the leap of faith and trust me. Because without that, we can't be together and that would really kill me. I'm not the other girls you've been with; I'm not going to go off with the first bloke I meet so stop blaming me for their mistakes. I'll be waiting, Oliver, if you decide you can put what happened to you in the past _in _the past. Come and find me – there won't be anybody else."

With this long speech she quickly turned and walked away, leaving Oliver open mouthed on the doorstep with a hell of a lot to think about.


	14. Love

**Getting Over It**

_**Chapter 14  
**__**Love**_

For a full two weeks Hermione heard nothing of Oliver. He wasn't in school – another teacher told her that he had called in sick and wasn't expected back for quite a while. It worried her to hear this. Should she take it as a good sign or a bad sign? The only thing that she was sure about was that ever since she had returned from talking – more like shouting – to him she had been filled with doubt.

When she returned home she hadn't really known what to expect for his response, but she had expected anything more than nothing.

"Just get on with your life 'Mione, if he's too much of an idiot to realise what he's missing then he doesn't deserve to be with you," Ginny had advised her, but Hermione didn't really see how she could get on with her life when he plagued her thoughts and haunted her dreams.

She was constantly wondering what he was thinking, what he was doing, how he was feeling; it drove her to distraction so much that she couldn't concentrate on even the simplest of tasks. It was this that made her end up in the hospital.

It was Saturday evening, Sam had gone to a friend's house for a birthday party and a sleepover and Hermione had the whole evening to herself. She had been planning to curl up in bed with a book and a box of chocolates, but Ginny told her that this would not be the case. Instead she was now being dragged out to a club to start 'Operation Get Over Oliver' as Ginny was now calling it.

Hermione had an hour until she was supposed to meet the group of friends she would be spending the night with trying to 'enjoy' herself. Though she did not see how she would be able to with her current state of mind. She was in the shower washing the paint out of her hair from where she had been finger painting with Sam that morning before he left to go his friend's house.

The window was open to let the steam out of the room so she was able to hear the soft hoot of an owl as it flapped past her window. Her head jerk in eagerness and she grabbed the handle of the glass door to open it, thinking that the owl may be from Oliver. But in her haste she pushed the door too hard causing it to bump against the rubber strip and bounce back. She tried to stop herself but the plastic flooring under foot was slippery from the water and soapsuds causing her to fall, hands first through the glass.

This was where Ginny found her an hour and a half later in a pool of her own blood, glass digging into her face and body, unconscious and hardly breathing. She rushed her friend to St. Mungo's hospital to be revived.

"You're lucky you found her when you did; she's lost an awful lot of blood," the Healer informed the worried redhead pacing outside Hermione's room.

"Will she be ok?" Ginny inquired.

"She should be; we've managed to get all of the glass out of the wounds so now we'll be able to start healing them, but she needs blood and she'll be weak for quite a while. Is there anybody that we'll need to contact? Parents, partner?"

"Erm yes, if you contact her parents, they'll be able to pick up her son from his friend's house and let her daughter know, she's in Hogwarts at the moment, and Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." Ginny told him and then with a sudden flash of inspiration she added, "And there's her boyfriend, Oliver Wood."

"Ok, we'll send out owls to them both," the Healer nodded and walked away leaving Ginny to resume her pacing.

--

It was past eleven by the time the owl flapped to his house and tapped on the pane of glass with its beak. Grumbling, he got placed his glass of fire whiskey down on the table and went to let the bird into the living room.

He unrolled the parchment and read through it, not really taking it in until he read it a second time. He gazed down at the words with wide-eyed, white-faced shock. All it said was that Hermione had been taken into the hospital in a critical condition. It did not tell him what had happened to her or how she was…just that she was in hospital.

He grabbed a jacket and threw it around him as he rushed to find the jar of floo powder to quickly get to St Mungo's. As he rushed out of the fireplace into the arrivals room at the hospital and then into the corridor, he grabbed the nearest nurse.

"Hermione Granger, where is she? I need to find her!" he exclaimed in a panic.

"Erm, I'm sorry sir, I don't know," she stuttered, eyes wide in panic. "If you go to the reception they'll be able to tell you."

Without a further word he rushed down the hall and into the lift where he raced down to the ground floor, pushing past everyone who got in his way. After an exasperatingly slow conversation he finally found out where Hermione was.

Ginny was still outside the room when he arrived, she sat on one of the hard chairs with her head leant against the wall.

"Ginny!" he cried rushing over to her; she stood up upon seeing him. "How is she? What happened?"

"She fell through the pane of glass in her shower; she's lost a lot of blood."

"Oh Merlin!" he exclaimed. "Will she be ok?"

Ginny shrugged then nodded as her eyes filled up with tears. Wordlessly, he hugged the young woman.

"I'm so scared Oliver!" she admitted.

"It's ok Gin, it'll be ok," he soothed.

Inside himself he felt just as scared, but he could see that at the moment he needed to be strong, for the sake of the woman standing before him. When Harry and Ron arrived he was able to surrender his role to them and sat outside the door waiting for the hospital staff to exit into the hall.

As soon as someone joined them the four people all jumped up to attention.

"She's sleeping at the moment, she'll be ok but I would suggest that you all go and get a good night's sleep. If you come back in the morning the potion will have worn off and she'll be awake," the Healer told them and they all nodded.

"Ok, thank you, and you'll contact us if anything happens?" Harry asked.

The Healer assured them that he would and Harry, Ron and Ginny all turned to leave.

"Oliver, are you not coming?" Ginny asked as she turned to see that he hadn't moved from the spot where he had been standing.

"No," he said distractedly. "I think I'll just stay here for a while."

They shrugged; the three of them had all, at some point, spent the night awake and uncomfortable in St Mungo's waiting for whoever was in the hospital room being treated. If they could go home and sleep and still be back in time to see their friend wake up then that is the plan that they would go with. To Oliver, on the other hand, it was a new experience.

So he sat and he waited as the hours ticked by, not sleeping for more than ten minutes at a time before someone would rush past and he would be jerked awake once more. Finally, all the Healers left and Oliver was allowed into the room. He pulled the chair right up to the bed and sat, simply looking down on her until the sunlight peeked through the gap at the bottom of the blinds.

--

It was around five o'clock in the morning and Oliver was just nodding off when her eyelids fluttered open. She looked around taking in where she was, remembering what had happened the previous night.

"Sam!" she exclaimed, remembering that she was supposed to be picking up her son that day.

"Don't worry," Oliver reassured her. "Your parents went to get him, they're driving down. Hogwarts has been contacted and Millie is going to come down for the weekend. I could pick her up if you'd like."

Hermione tried to smile at this comment but the deep cuts on her face were still taking their time to heal and hurt as her face moved.

"Harry, Ron and Ginny were here last night. They went home to get some sleep, but they'll be back soon," He told her as he took hold of her hand.

"You didn't leave?" she asked.

"No."

"You've been here all night?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Well," Oliver began to answer but stopped, when he thought about it he really wasn't sure why he had rushed over as soon as he had heard that she was in some way hurt and then spent the whole of the night by her bedside watching her every move. "I don't really know Hermione."

They fell silent as the both thought about what he had done. Oliver finally broke the silence by blurting out his feelings.

"I've been so scared," he told her as he burst into tears laying his head upon her stomach, weeping into the blankets.

She began to stroke his head, running her fingers through his hair making comforting noises until he was calm once more.

"I'm so used to being overlooked, second best," he told her. "You are so much better than me, younger, smarter, a great mum, why would you want someone like me? What have I ever done?"

"You've done lots Oliver and you know it," Hermione said firmly but before she could go on to list his attributes he continued.

"When Mark came back and I found out that it had been Amy that he had been with all the fear came back, if one of my girlfriends had already left me for him and the other had been married to him he was obviously better than me and I'm used to feeling inferior, but I've never felt the way I feel about you."

"And how do you feel about me?" she whispered.

"When he turned up and wanted you back it tore me up, my heart was telling me to trust you, that you'd never get back with him, but my head was screaming that I could never be the type of man that a woman would want to spend the rest of her life with and I got angry. I am so sorry that I was so stupid. I've been such an idiot. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Of course I can Oliver," she whispered a smile spreading across her face as she reached out and cupped his cheek. "And for the record, you're the type of man that _I _could see myself with for the rest of my life."

"Good." Oliver grinned, covering the hand that was on his cheek with his own. "Because I'm ready to take that leap of faith now. I'm ready to love you with all my soul."


	15. Epilouge

**Getting Over It**

_**Epilogue**_

Hermione stood on the platform awaiting the Hogwarts Express; Millie was returning home for the summer after her third year. Many parents and smaller children were crowded on the platform all eagerly waiting the arrival of their children.

She smiled as she saw Sam running towards her with Oliver following. In his arms was Josh, their one-year-old son.

"Sorry we're a little late there was a problem with one of the parents at school," he said as he kissed her and she took Josh off him.

"I thought you were going to miss us. Millie would have been so disappointed if you had. Why did you have to deal with it?" Hermione asked, not really annoyed with him.

"I'm the headmaster now; it's my job." He grinned. "Look, here she comes!"

He pointed along the tracks and sure enough a cloud of steam could be seen making its way closer to them. As soon as the scarlet engine pulled to a stop Hogwarts students began pouring out, looking for their friends and families. Millie finally spotted them and raced over. She dropped her case and broom to the floor and pulled Josh from her mother's arms, wrapping him up in her own.

"Look how much you've grown!" she exclaimed with delight.

Oliver bent and picked up her things and they began to walk towards the barrier that would take them back out into Kings Cross Station.

"How about we go out for dinner tonight?" Hermione suggested. "We're celebrating the start of the holidays for us all."

Everyone happily agreed to this and Sam and Millie started the usual argument of where it was that they wanted to eat.

--

When the restaurant had been decided, reservations made and everyone dressed to go they stepped into the fireplace – Hermione and Sam first, followed by Millie, then Oliver and Josh.

They sat at their table and picked up the menus to begin choosing what it was that they wanted to eat. Hermione scanned the room and her eyes fell upon someone that she didn't want to see. So as not to cause a scene, she quietly excused herself saying that she was going to the bathroom. Asking Oliver to order for her, she walked over to where her ex-husband sat alone.

"Hello Mark," she said dryly, standing over him.

"Hermione!" he exclaimed, looking up at her.

"Alone? What a shock!" she said sarcastically.

"Are the kids here? Can I see them?" he asked desperately.

"Yes, _my _family is here and no, you cannot see them, you know that."

"Please, just five minutes."

"No, Mark. You stopped paying your child support and I got full custody of them, so you have no right to see them."

"They need their father!" he protested.

"And they have one now; Oliver has legally adopted them both," she snapped back.

"But they need their _real _father."

"No, Mark. They do not need you, they will never need you! What they need is a man who they can look up to, who can be a role model. Have you ever been that? No, of course you haven't, so it would be best for all of us if you leave and never ever come back. They don't need you and neither do I. We have Oliver now and he's a much better husband and father than you ever were."

When she returned to the table she could not stop smiling. Finally, she felt that she had put Mark into his place; he was finally out of her life for good. She had what she always wanted: a career that she enjoyed and made a difference in people's lives, three wonderful children, and a husband who loved and respected her to share all of it with.

Finally, she was over the heartbreak and ready to get on with living her life.


End file.
